Konrad Jarnot was born
in Brighton in 1972, studied at the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
in London and since 1998 has studied
privately with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
He has a large repertoire in opera and
oratorio and sings German, French, Italian
and English songs, also music off the
beaten track, e.g. Hermann Zilcher,
whose Lieder he sang on his debut CD
for Orfeo in 2001. Today he lives in
Germany.
Studying with Fischer-Dieskau
means that he is careful with nuances
but the singer he most reminds me of
is Gérard Souzay, both in timbre
and in singing style. I happened to
listen to La Flûte enchantée
(track 2) first. It’s a favourite song
of mine and the first phrases show a
soft and flexible baryton-Martin, i.e.
a lyrical tenor with baritone range
(Camille Maurane and Pierre Bernac of
an older generation were typical barytons-Martin).
Jarnot also has shining high notes and
dark, full bottom notes in the Souzay
mould; in other words he is well-equipped
for both lyrical and dramatic utterances.
His singing is often elegant. He can
sing long legato phrases, exquisitely
shaded and his pianissimos can be beautifully
honeyed. In forte his singing is not
wholly free from strain and occasionally
he can press too hard and make coarse
sounds. The climax of Asie, the
long first song of Shéhérazade,
at approx. 7:00 on track 1, on the words
"je voudrais voir mourir d’amour
ou bien de haine" is forceful
and ugly, but that is very much an exception,
and I can imagine that Jarnot, or his
teacher, would counsel that you shouldn’t
sing the word "hate" beautifully.
All through the recital it is very obvious
that Jarnot is responsive to the texts,
that he colours the voice appropriately,
that his diction is good and that he
sounds French. The Ravel song cycle
is, by the way, a world premiere recording,
never before performed on disc by baritone
and piano. Usually it is sung by female
voices and I have always regarded this
as female territory but the booklet
states that the text is neutral. Rereading
it I still feel that it is a woman speaking,
at least in the second and third songs.
Be that as it may, if Christa Ludwig
or Brigitte Fassbaender can sing the
typically male cycle Winterreise,
we can also accept a baritone in Shéhérazade.
What should be more crucial is the piano
accompaniment when one is used to the
shimmering orchestra. And it is true
that it loses a little of the oriental
mystery, but Ravel was also a marvellous
piano composer and produces a rich "orchestral"
skein. It is well played by Helmut Deutsch
who once again shows that he is one
of the best accompanists around. He
demonstrates his credentials admirably
in the dramatic solo interlude after
the climax of Asie. Returning
to Jarnot, La Flûte enchantée
is beautifully sung, just as the dreamy
L’Indifferent.
It is good to have
collected here all twelve songs Duparc
wrote for male voice. There have been
several other recordings lately, and
I haven’t heard all of them, but from
what I have heard it is clear that Jarnot
is up there with the best. Here he is
even more reminiscent of Souzay and
that is high praise. Duparc was probably
one of the most self-critical composers
in history but that also means that
what is preserved is on the highest
possible level. These songs are masterpieces
and it is no problem to listen to them
in a row, since they all have their
own unique individuality. Just listen
to L’Invitation au Voyage and
Sérénade Florentine.
These are the first two songs and they
are beautiful both and finely sung.
Then comes the stormy La Vague et
la Cloche. This is sung with real
bite. Phidylé, one of
Duparc’s most enchanting melodies, is
also enchantingly sung with warm tone.
I could go on like this through the
full dozen. Suffice to say that we have
here a singer in his early prime, already
a mature artist, whom I wish all the
best with his career and hope to hear
more from before long.
To sum up, this disc
was a pleasant surprise and I urge readers
to give it a try. Shéhérazade,
in this version will probably not be
my first option in the future – nothing
can beat Régine Crespin’s 40-year-old
Decca recording, reissued in the Legends
series – but it is an interesting alternative,
and the Duparc songs are very fine indeed.
The sound quality is all one could wish,
the booklet contains the sung texts
with German and English translations,
the English ones by the singer himself.
Göran Forsling
Konrad Jarnot (baritone), Helmut Deutsch
(piano) 
