Following yesterday's musical offering, here is Fritz Wunderlich again; in the deservedly famous 'Handel's Largo' aria
What makes Wunderlich's a supreme voice for me is the combination of thrilling masculine tone and strength, with an underlying pathos, an earnest quality. This was, no doubt, partly due to his youth - he died at only 35 years old (due to an accident - falling down stairs), which is barely reaching maturity for a male singer.
Technically, Wunderlich was noted for his breath control, giving him the ability to sing long phrases and (this is much more difficult than might be imagined) to increase or decrease volume while holding a high note - without either going-off that note (losing intonation) or breaking the continuity of vibrato.
This is shown to great effect in the notoriously tricky Il Mio Tesoro from Mozart's Don Giovanni, sung live. Listen for the long, single breath passages with rapid runs up and down the scale.
This aria demonstrates the 'heroic' quality of Wunderlich's voice - which is unusual in this type of lyric tenor.
Being a live performance; Wunderlich snatches very quick breath in the
middle of the very longest passage, which enables him to slow down and
expand the last part of it.
Below is have a studio recording of the same aria,
sung in German translation, in which he sings the phrase right through
with no trouble at all - but this is usually not possible in live
performance where the singer is often tired by the stage movements and
acting.
If you are impatient to hear it, jump straight to 1:45. It makes me feel a bit faint just listening...
Mozart is widely known as one of the greatest of composers, yet there is a sense in which his genius is the most elusive and delicate. His greatest compositions hover very close to the trite and banal - and for much of the 19th century he was regarded as a tuneful, decorative but essentially 'light' composer - rather as moderns might regard Telemann, JC or CPE Bach (sons of JS) or Mendelssohn.
It was due to the work of several critical champions such as GB Shaw and Alfred (not Albert) Einstein, and the work of some great conductors, that people began to see the lucid depths of Mozart - and for the late 20th century this was nailed-into-place by Peter Schaffer's Amadeus play and movie, which captured exactly this special quality (albeit marred by excessive plot emphasis on the sub-par and not-wholly-Mozartian Requiem).
Anyway... all this is a prelude to the above tenor aria from Mozart's singspiel opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail (aka 'Seraglio') - The Escape from the Harem.
To appreciate this requires no knowledge of the opera, nor even of the words being sung - indeed, it is a ludicrously long (over six minutes!) and elaborate solo aria for a comic opera, with a complex orchestral introduction - and is therefore nearly always omitted or severely truncated in performance - and indeed in many recordings.
I think it best to regard "Ich baue ganz... (IBG)" as a concert aria - a miniature and self-sufficient solo work of pure music.
IBG is also omitted sometimes, because it is extremely difficult to sing: impossible for most tenors. And indeed so various are its demands on tone, smoothness, agility, range and - especially - breath capacity and control; that no tenor can fulfil all of them to the highest degree.
Tone is especially important for Mozart tenors, as the major roles (and their music) have a special quality of youthful earnestness and purity that should be innate in a singer's vocal quality.
Fritz Wunderlich is regarded as one of the truly great tenors of the twentieth century, and this reputation is rooted in the tonal quality of his voice. Of course not everybody will like it - certainly it is very different from the most popular of great Italian or Spanish tenors (and their South American descendants) - but most agree it is the best suited to Mozart.
But Wunderlich had other qualities as a singer. This aria shows the fluidity of his vocal production, the way his tone continued-between the words, as if the words were being shaped-from a continuous production of lovely sound. This is unusual, and often not even sought-after, among the German tradition of operatic tenors.
Then again his breath control was superb. This is not just a matter of being able to sing long phrases, but of maintaining the quality and control of tone throughout, without diminishment.
His agility was remarkable for someone with such a size of voice; his voice was middle-sized (i.e. middling loud) among tenors; but most tenors who are more fully able to enunciate the florid runs and arpeggios of the middle section of this aria (i.e. separating the notes*) have small/ quiet voices, and without the heroic 'ringing' tone of Wunderlich.
As for the aria IBG itself - well it is a superb example of Mozart at his very best, and doing something only he could do. It is light and easy to enjoy, but has such a glorious sense of spirit and joy in its phrases and touches of orchestration as to reach the sublime.
Pay particular attention to the use of woodwinds in the orchestration, and supporting the voice. Woodwind is regarded as a specialty of Mozart's orchestral work - and here you can see just why.
*Richard Conrad was one of these: listen from 13:55. Note particularly the astonishing, genuine trill; so rare an accomplishment among tenors.
I have long been a great lover of the German tradition in classical singing (including Austria and Switzerland), with Fritz Wunderlich being among the candidates for my favourite-ever singer, and Richard Tauber a more recent "discovery" (i.e I have only recently appreciated his genius).
Following this line, I came upon this delightful recording of a piece by Lehar sung by Herbert Ernst Groh, who was apparently a Swiss tenor of the middle twentieth century. He has a naturally lyrical and high-lying tenor voice, with wonderfully sweet, ringing, and controlled top notes (on display at the end of this piece).
One strength of the German tenor tradition is that even with such a light and high voice as Groh's, there is a masculine strength and virility. This seems to come from a throat-focused and "muscular" (rather than "resonance") based method of production. This is seldom the case for such types of tenor among Italians (or Russians, or English for that matter!).
Speaking more generally; to my ear, the German and Italian (which includes Spanish and South American) operatic tradition gives an utterly different vocal sound and method, with very different strengths.
I could not say which I prefer - and fortunately, I do not need to choose between (say) Wunderlich and Pavarotti! I certainly prefer Pavarotti in Verdi, Donizetti or Bellini; or Luigi Alva in Rossini; but clearly Wunderlich in Mozart, Weber or Handel - and Germanic singers are clearly better (usually) in Richard Strauss or (especially) Wagner.
The point is that the operatic tradition, and indeed all classical singing, is mostly divided between German and Italian: nearly-all of the best and most-performed pieces are from these two traditions.
I say again: we are fortunate not to be compelled to choose-between them!
I have long been aware of the tenor Richard Tauber, and his reputation as a Mozartian; but it was only this weekend that I really appreciated what justly led to him being one of the great lyrical singers of the twentieth century.
With my brother, and at his instigation, I watched through a film version of "Lilac Time"; which is an operetta loosely about the life of Schubert, that uses Schubert melodies for its arias and choruses. This 1934 movie was called Blossom Time, and had been adapted as a vehicle for Richard Tauber; despite that he could not act at all.
The movie itself is hopelessly dull; with a silly script, woodenly performed (Tauber himself being the most ligneous of all); but about halfway through, "Schubert" does a public concert of some of his songs (in the plot, he is standing-in for a more famous singer - which is why the audience is initially so hostile).
These small scale works demonstrate better than the operas I have previously heard, what made Tauber so special - and so famous for his technique and musicianship. Look out for the smooth legato style; by which Tauber sings continuously, with a flow of tone continuing uninterrupted between the notes.
The musicality of phrasing, and the way he subtly points the meaning of lyrics, are both features of the German Art Song (Lieder) tradition - and show Tauber's high level of musical intelligence and training.
He also displays the extremely difficult art of messa di voce; by which he can sustain a note while increasing or diminishing the volume, while maintaining the intonation and vibrato.
A further exceptional aspect is when Tauber sings extremely quietly (pianissimo) - again while maintaining tone, pitch, and with clear diction.
