This is an irresistible collection of juicy lollipops from
one of the great ‘crossover’ artists of the twentieth century. Tauber
was unique; you simply cannot mistake the timbre of his voice or the style
of his singing, and though he has his many mannerisms, there is a deeply
felt sincerity about his singing that, for me anyway, overrides any feeling
of ‘cheesiness’. The way, for example, he slides into soft half-voice
for the reprise of Girls were made to love and kiss is simply delicious,
however camp it may be by purist standards.
Did he have a great voice? He probably did, though
of course he came under fire for ‘prostituting’ himself by singing increasing
amounts of light music. Most of the recordings here are from the 30s
and 40s, when he was arguably past his vocal peak. In Mädchen
mein Mädchen from 1928, though, you can hear a voice with an
undeniably heroic ring to it. As he progressed through his later career,
he had to learn to handle the higher reaches of his voice, so that he
tends either to hector or go into a soft falsetto – which he of course
does supremely beautifully.
He had a striking stylistic range, as you can readily
hear even on this issue devoted to lighter numbers. The delicacy of
the lovely Serenade from ‘Frascita’, for example, is
in marked contrast with the aching nostalgia of a song like ‘One
day when we were young’. In fact, nostalgia is, quite naturally,
the staple coinage of this issue, but there is a particular poignancy
in the person of this Austrian singer so vastly popular in the English-speaking
world in the pre-World War II years. In fact he settled in England in
1938 and became a British citizen in 1940, and it’s probable that his
career would have easily survived the war; but sadly he died prematurely
in 1948.
One aspect of Tauber I was not aware of was his work
as a composer. The most successful of his operettas was Old Chelsea,
from which there are two songs here. In particular, My heart
and I is a very celebrated song, and, though Tauber’s voice is undoubtedly
showing its age in this 1943 recording, he seems to sing it with a special
passion.
If you already know and love Tauber’s singing, this
CD will probably send you into raptures. If you don’t, do try it, and
keep a box of Kleenex handy. Most of these very old recordings wear
their age very well, and create no serious barrier to the enjoyment
of the art of this great stylist.
Gwyn Parry-Jones
Richard Tauber (tenor) with conductors Henry Goehl
(tracks 6,8,12,17,20), Gustav Walter (tracks 19,22), Frieder Weissmann
(tracks 23, 24)