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Gramophone, May 2013 |
Mike Ashman |
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Kaufmann and Runnicles with anniversary salute to Wagner |
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Turn
immediately to the Tannhäuser excerpt. Mighty tents are already pitched on
this summit of early Wagnerian arioso — Melchior and Szell, Windgassen and
Sawallisch, Kollo and Solti —but Kaufmann and a superbly paced accompaniment
from Runnicles and his German orchestra are up there with them. Kaufmann
both darkens and stresses up his voice to portray the failed pilgrim's
predicament, and he and the conductor make daring and unisono use of
fermatas.
Elsewhere, the novelties of this carefully thought-out
recital include the 'original' version of Lohengrin's Grail Narration (two
verses with linking chorus) and, again following earlier colleagues like
Melchior and Richard Tauber, a performance of the WesendonckLieder. I remain
unconvinced (pace the artist's booklet defence) that the latter really work
dramatically for a male voice — although Kaufmann gives so much attention to
dear Mathilde's texts as to render their barely Alice Elgar level of poetic
inspiration almost too clear, and Runnicles makes Mottl's plain
orchestration as echt Wagnerian (ie Tristanesque) as possible. Kaufmann's
full Act 3 narration is now even more polished and ecstatic (high' is the
word I want to use) than his noted Munich and Bayreuth performances. The
other operatic excerpts, including a sizeable chunk of Siegfried's Forest
Murmurs and a truly improvisatory-sounding 'Am stillen Herd', also find the
tenor pushing the confines of a recital disc excitingly towards the level of
live performance.
Subtly recorded (in East Berlin's
atmospheric-sounding Funkhaus studio) and, as I hope I've already indicated,
magically accompanied, the disc is something of a triumph.
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