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MusicWeb international |
John Quinn |
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Franz SCHUBERT - Winterreise, D911 |
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Jonas
Kaufmann and Helmut Deutsch recorded Die schöne Müllerin back in 2009. That
recording, made while Kaufmann was still a Decca artist, was recorded live
in concert. Now, early on in his new contract with Sony, he gives us a
recording of Winterreise made under studio conditions. I bought the earlier
recording when it came out and I found a great deal to admire in it so I was
eager to hear Kaufmann in this second great Wilhelm Müller cycle.
It’s perhaps worth making an initial observation, even at the risk of
stating the obvious. Kaufmann has a very big, operatic voice that’s well
suited to, say, Puccini and Verdi and with more than a baritonal tint to it.
As such, though he’s more than capable of fining down his voice – and does
so frequently here - he offers a very different experience in this cycle as
compared to the lighter voices of tenors such as Mark Padmore (review),
Peter Pears (review) or Peter Schreier (review). I’m aware that all three of
those singers – and many others who have recorded Winterreise - are no
strangers to the operatic stage but I fancy that in Kaufmann’s case the
balance of his career is more weighted towards opera than to Lieder and one
is frequently reminded, while listening, that here is a musical actor at
work.
Kaufmann comes to Winterreise with a formidable operatic
reputation but he is less celebrated as a recitalist, the earlier recording
of Die schöne Müllerin notwithstanding. However, it is clear from listening
to this performance that he has thought very carefully about the musical and
dramatic issues of the cycle as a whole and of the individual songs.
Revisiting a few of the songs from his account of Die schöne Müllerin I
formed the impression, perhaps wrongly, that his voice sounded lighter in
that 2009 recording than is the case here. That’s not to imply for a minute
that Kaufmann does not employ a light voice when appropriate in Winterreise.
It may be that he feels that Winterreise requires darker colours and more
vocal heft – and that’s a very defensible point of view – or it may be that
in the four years that separate these recordings his voice has acquired
additional hues and has matured even further into an even more impressive
and varied instrument.
Throughout this performance Kaufmann deploys
an impressively wide range of vocal colouring. He gives an early example of
this in Gefrorne Tränen where the colours enhance his expressiveness. The
very last phrase, ‘des ganzen Winters Eis!’, is delivered with a very full,
operatic tone which, I must say, took me by surprise at first. I’d expected
strong singing at this point – the phrase is marked ‘stark’, after all – but
this is the thrilling sound of an operatic tenor pretty much in full cry.
It’s not the last example of Kaufmann ‘letting go’ in this performance,
either. However, such moments are reserved for the appropriate junctures and
so make their mark all the more tellingly when they occur.
On the
other side of the ledger, as it were, Kaufmann often fines down his singing
to an impressively controlled mezza voce. Among several examples that I
noted were the final stanza of Gute Nacht, the third and sixth stanzas of
Frühlingstraum and the whole of Der Leiermann.
Having a singer with
Kaufmann’s dynamic range and dramatic sensibility pays real dividends in
terms of the contrasts that he can effect within a song. Thus, for example,
there’s an abundance of dynamic contrast amid the turbulence of Die
Wetterfahne and again in Wasserflut. In Einsamkeit the delivery of the first
two stanzas sounds withdrawn but Kaufmann turns on the intensity and power
for the third stanza. If you want to hear an example of his dramatic
sensibility listen to Irrlicht; this is a performance by a singer accustomed
to the stage and who can deploy a wide range of colours and dynamics to
bring out all the meaning of the words.
For all Kaufmann’s vocal
prowess there are some facets of the cycle that I don’t believe he brings
out as well as some other singers I’ve heard. This is not to diminish his
achievements here but rather to emphasise that certain types of singers are
better equipped than others at bringing out nuances in these songs. For
example, consider Der Greise Kopf. The singing as such is very impressive
but I miss the glacial chill that a singer such as Schreier could bring to
the opening lines. That said, Kaufmann is very expressive in his own way,
not least in the bald tone with which he delivers the last line of the
second stanza. His reading of Die Krähe is compelling but I’ve heard some
other versions in which the scariness of the crow’s presence is brought out
more vividly. However, Schubert’s music is so inexhaustible and so
multi-faceted that it’s unreasonable to expect that any singer will be able
to deliver everything.
That last statement is true of the three
tenors that I mentioned at the start of this review. All of them – and
others - bring things to Winterreise that are remarkable in their own right
and so does Jonas Kaufmann. His singing of this cycle is very impressive.
The success of the reading is due in no small measure to the
contribution of pianist Helmut Deutsch. He is a renowned accompanist and his
experience and insights bring a considerable amount to this performance.
Jonas Kaufmann’s many admirers will certainly want to hear this new
recording and I think that Lieder collectors will also want to hear one of
the most acclaimed of today’s voices in some of the greatest Lieder in the
repertoire.
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