Jonas Kaufmann impresses with his finely judged phrasing, psychological acuity and seductive swagger
The Sunday Times, October 20 2019
Hugh Canning
 
ALBUM OF THE WEEK - JONAS KAUFMANN - Wien
 
No tenor singing today is as versed as Kaufmann in the vanishing art of light opera — he began his career with a long run in Romberg’s The Student Prince — although he cites Rudolf Schock, a German tenor in the 1950s, as this album’s inspiration, rather than the better-known Richard Tauber or Fritz Wunderlich. Like Schock, Kaufmann is also a lyric Wagnerian, and his singing of Sieczynski’s Vienna, City of My Dreams lacks the easy charm of Wunderlich, but he achieves with musicianship and artistry what came naturally to his golden-voiced predecessor. He’s in fine form seducing Willis-Sorensen’s Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus) and Hanna Glawari (The Merry Widow) with sweet nothings. And he finds a Schubertian love of nature in the hymns to Vienna’s leafy suburbs by Leopoldi, Benatzky and May. Fischer and the Vienna Phil are deluxe accompanists.






 
 
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