Projects
such as this can go so horribly wrong. Opera singers trying to
perform “lighter” fare usually do no favors either to themselves
or to the music. Only rarely does a classically trained singer
working exclusively in that world show an ability to
convincingly capture a popular style; usually the inflections
and expressive nuances are just “off”, unnatural-sounding, and
sometimes even humorous in their attempts at loosening or
altering long-practiced, specialized technique. Fortunately, the
music on this happily successful effort is many steps removed
from the merely “popular”–and the singer, tenor Jonas Kaufmann,
is likewise far from a typical opera singer.
The works on
offer are characterized by Kaufmann as “tenor hits from the age
of the talkies”, a special time in Germany’s cultural history
when his grandfather, from whom he first heard many of these
tunes, was studying in Berlin, a period that for this recording
roughly spans the decade from 1925-35, the world of Sally Bowles
and the Kit Kat Klub, as well as Franz Lehár, Emmerich Kálmán,
Paul Abraham, and Erich Korngold. In a way, these songs are the
“classical music” of a time and place during which many of the
composers of the real thing were expelled, banned, exiled, or
imprisoned. Yes, these songs are lighter fare than we associate
with the most refined operatic repertoire, but, especially as
Kaufmann sings them–or rather, performs them–their “lesser”
musical/artistic credentials warrant absolutely no apologies.
And there are many, many moments of music and singing as
spectacular as you’ll hear in any opera.
I’ve praised
Kaufmann’s “rich, baritonal tenor” and have cited his “uncommon
lyricism and emotional depth” and “lovely high-register soft
singing” (in his recording of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin),
and in his review of Wagner arias, colleague Robert Levine is
equally impressed, describing the tenor’s “easy ascents above
the staff”, “smooth legato”, “phrasing that confirms great
musicianship”, and “beautiful, fully rounded, lustrous sound”.
You get the idea: Kaufmann has established himself–at least in
the opera world–as perhaps the pre-eminent tenor. All of the
above traits and techniques and abilities are on display here,
from the two versions of Lehár’s “Dein ist mein ganzes Herz!”
(one in English, the other in French) and Kálmán’s “Grüss mir
mein Wien”, to Eduard Künneke’s “Das Lied vom Leben des Schrenk”
(complete with concluding high-C) and Korngold’s gorgeous,
disc-highlight “Glück, das mir verblieb”. The latter is a
duet–and here is another plus for this recital: the singer
accompanying Kaufmann on this and two other numbers, soprano
Julia Kleiter, is wonderful, a superb singer who matches the
tenor perfectly, vocally and stylistically.
The
accompaniments, including several arrangements by Andreas
Tarkmann, are all finely played by the Berlin Radio Symphony and
Jochen Rieder, and recorded in the broadcasting studio of the
former East German Radio–noted for its excellent acoustics, and
apparently retaining much of its ambience from that earlier
time. You may not love absolutely all of the selections here (I
could have done without the too-sappy “My little nest of
heavenly blue”, another by Lehár), but I’m pretty certain that
you will enjoy every single note. Highly recommended.
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