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Broadway World, Jan. 24, 2018 |
Richard Sasanow |
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Liederabend: New York, Carnegie Hall, 20. Januar 2018 |
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Jonas Kaufmann Returns to Carnegie and the Audience Rejoices
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After a string of cancellations--including the Met's new TOSCA--tenor Jonas
Kaufmann made a triumphant return to New York last Saturday at Carnegie
Hall, in a recital with his frequent collaborator Helmut Deutsch. Of course,
he could have been singing the telephone book and this audience would have
lapped it up; instead, he performed Schubert's famed song cycle for tenor
and piano, DIE SCHOENE MUELLERIN (THE MILLER'S BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER) and
followed it up with even more songs by the same composer.
Having
interviewed enough opera singers of all types, I know how many of them feel
about singing songs (in German lieder but, in the common lingo, art songs in
general), particularly those in their native language. It renews their
voices, it connects them with the language, it permits them to perform and
feel like they are sitting in their living rooms and having a grand old
time.
Indeed, Kaufmann was clearly happy in his milieu with MUELLERIN
and the musicianship of pianist Deutsch, from the first bars of "Das Wandern
(Journeying)" ("To journey is the miller's joy...a wretched miller must he
be who never thought of journeying...) He the caressed the melodies as if he
were making sweet love to them--a little "mild und liese (mildly and
gently)," as Isolde sings in Wagner's TRISTAN UND ISOLDE.
MUELLERIN
is certainly one of the more benign examples of the art song cycle: Indeed,
when the singer boosted the level of his voice at various points in the
evening, it was still pretty quiet. No one would have mistaken him for the
tenor who raises the roof in Wagner, Verdi or Bizet. (Kaufmann is expected
back at Carnegie in April to perform Act II of TRISTAN UND ISOLDE with the
Boston Symphony. Knock on wood.)
Even when he became somewhat more
excited, such as in "Der Jaeger (The Hunter)," a bit more than halfway
through the evening, Kaufmann didn't make a sound that was less than pretty.
(And, incidentally, he sounded even more baritonal than usual in this
music--not necessarily a bad thing.) He may have felt the music deeply--and
I'm sure he did--but it felt a little distant to me, a little caught up in
the mechanics of making these songs little pieces of art.
Frankly, I
didn't feel a little fire burning in him until his encores by the same
composer: "Der Jüngling an der Quelle," D. 300; "Der Musensohn," D. 764;
"Die Forelle," D. 550; and, finally--he saved the best for last--"Der
Lindenbaum" from WINTERREISE, D. 911.
The last time he was at
Carnegie, about four years ago, he varied the program considerably and I
much preferred it, with some Wagner, Schumann, Liszt and, particularly,
Richard Strauss bringing out many more of the qualities and colors that
Kaufmann's voice possesses. (It also gave pianist Deutsch, who has worked
with the tenor since his student days, much more of a chance to shine in his
own right, as audiences know he can.)
It might seem picky to complain
about the choice of repertoire when one has one of the world's great singers
before us, but when we have so little of him, a "wish list" seems part of
the territory.
As mentioned, Kaufmann returns to Carnegie Hall on
April 12 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra to perform Act II of Wagner's
TRISTAN UND ISOLDE, with soprano Camilla Nylund.
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