 With
this new disc, Jonas Kaufmann offers something like a
transalpine equivalent to his disc of the German repertoire
popularised by Richard Tauber (Sony Classical, 12/14). Here it’s
Neapolitan songs made famous by Caruso and his successors, as
well as additional later songs in the style.
Fans of the
tenor will jump at the opportunity to hear him letting his hair
down, and they won’t be disappointed. But, for all the fawning
booklet-note’s claims for Kaufmann being an Italian manqué, his
version of relaxed and easy-going is still pretty tense and
Teutonic compared with, say, Juan Diego Flórez, audibly having a
ball on his recent ‘Italia’ disc (Decca, 10/15). Kaufmann’s new
disc is glossier and more heavily produced, too, with the tenor
placed far forward (with dabs of reverb) in the balance. The
orchestrations, dutifully performed, are awash with fluty
twiddles and swoony string counterpoints, occasionally bolstered
by plangent mandolin and furrowed-brow brass.
Kaufmann
does everything with the care and intelligence one expects, and
no shortage of open-throated ardour. But neither the engineering
nor the repertoire shows the tenor to best advantage,
highlighting a lack of juice and honey in his voice and delicacy
in his manner. There’s too little lightness of touch in the
skipping lines of ‘Voglio vivere così’, for example, and he
can’t quite vary his tone enough in the more repetitive songs –
here you suddenly notice a few reprises too many of the big tune
of ‘Caruso’.
It’s good harmless fun, even if it
ultimately feels like a match made less in heaven than in the
boardroom.
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