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Hans Reinmar was a
formidably equipped Viennese baritone.
After a false start as an architect
he determined to become a conductor,
via vocal studies in Milan, but the
unpropitious economic circumstances
of post-War Austria and Germany made
that a daunting prospect. He turned
back to singing and began his career
with some provincial appointments, slowly
learning his craft at the Municipal
Theatre in Olomouc (or Olmütz as
Reinmar would doubtless still have known
it) and the opera company in Nuremberg.
He then moved to Zurich and back, prestigiously,
to Berlin after small stints in Dresden
and Hamburg. Although he was heard in
Bayreuth and in Salzburg, Berlin remained
his base for the rest of his career.
When one thinks of the contemporary
competition – Bockelmann, Rode, Janssen,
Schlusnus, Domgraf-Fassbaender and Hüsch
among them - one realises that Reinmar
had to have carved out his roles with
considerable distinction and had the
voice and the stamina to survive such
strong colleagues. He sang much of the
expected repertoire but also Hindemith’s
Mathis der Maler and von Einem’s Dantons
Tod (both after the War) and Boris Godunov
(he was reputed to have been excellent)
and, much earlier in his career, Kurt
Weill. One of his last important roles
was in Robert Kurka’s splendid opera
The Good Soldier Schweik and it was
a melancholy coincidence that he died,
in February 1961, two days after his
final appearance in Kurka’s opera.
He was a lauded Mozartian
and a noted Verdi baritone and we have
ample evidence to support the admiration
of his contemporaries. That said I would
characterise him as more a character
baritone than one with a beautiful voice
per se. There are a number of apparently
unissued Odeons here – the Don Giovanni
arias, one from Meyerbeer’s Die Afrikanerin
(to give it the full German translation
– collectors should note that the unissued
side is Wie hat mein Herz geschlagen),
and the Bizet Carmen aria.
All derive from two sessions, a month
apart, in 1928 and all have survived
in fine shape. His Mozart is full of
bluff drama – and there’s nothing much
wrong with the singing of the Champagne
aria but the accompanying strings of
the Staatsoper Orchestra had clearly
left discretion back in the locale
because slither and slide is the
name of the game. In the other aria
he is rather strained at the top and
delivery is a mite uneven, so I can
understand withholding the sides at
the time. He hasn’t quite got the downward
extension for Verdi’s Masked Ball aria
but although there are relatively limited
tone colours in the Don Carlos extract
(and he tends to overstress the sibilants)
there’s also great expressive depth
to the singing. In fact declamatory
power was what Reinmar had, and a great
deal of it, a strong sense of involvement
and characterisation and frequently
an ardent impersonation (his Marschner
is particularly telling in this respect
and the copy used by Preiser is strikingly
fine and immediate). At times this could
lead him to overstatement – he certainly
can tend toward over emphatic projection
in his Verdi – but his Wagner is unusually
poetic and convincing and his Abt, with
which the recital ends, shows he could
lighten and winnow his tone. Not for
nothing did Reinmar work at the Komische
Oper in Berlin.
The unissued items
make this an engrossing issue. Transfers
are careful, pitching is good, copies
are clean – first class in fact – and
the note by Einhard Luther lays out
the biographical material lucidly. Reinmar’s
is not the first name that springs to
mind from amongst the plethora of baritonal
talent in Germany in the 1930s and 40s
but this issue brings his artistry to
deserved light once again.
Jonathan Woolf
PREISER 89112 [75.23] 