Search MusicWeb Here Custom Search     International mailing Up to 40% off

Searching Musicweb Monthly index Recordings of the Year Label index Masterwork index Series index Search engines Review Archive Classical Downloads Jazz Concerts Nostalgia Books Film music Resources Composer pages National discographies Online books Piano Trio Survey Gerard Hoffnung Arthur Butterworth's columns Philip Scowcroft's British light music collection Interviews Programme notes Other material Articles Seen & Heard Jazz reviews Message Board Announcements About Musicweb About Musicweb Contact Musicweb Contributors What they say about us Visitor stats Site Map

Founder: Len Mullenger

Richard WAGNER (1813-1883) So viel der helden - Wagnerian tenors in the era of Kaiser Wilhelm II (1871-1918) Otto Briesemeister: Siegfried: Nothung!, Nothung!, Neidliches Schwert! (1908) [2:47] Oskar Bolz: Lohengrin: Mein lieber Schwan (1908) [3:58] Alfred Goltz: Die fliegende Holländer: Mit Gewitter und Sturm (1907) [2:25] Heinrich Knote: Lohengrin: In fernen Land, unnahbar euren Schritten (1908) [4:02] Fritz Trostorff: Tannhäusser: Inbrunst in Herzen (1908) [3:45] Otto Lähnemann: Lohengrin: Atmest du nicht mit mir die süssen Düfte (1908) [2:55] Franz Xaver Battisti: Der fliegende Holländer: Auf hohem Felsen lag ich träumend [with Marga Burchardt] (1909) [2:32] Adolf Gröbke: Götterdämmerung: Brünnhilde! Heilige Braut! (1909) [3:48] Hans Tänzler: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Fange an! (1909) [2:52] Carl Baum: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Morgenlich leuchtend (1909) [2:58] Benno Haberl: Lohengrin: Wenn ich im Kampfe für dich siege [with Gertrud Runge] (1910) [3:12] Jacques Decker: Die Walküre: Aus dem Wald trieb es mich fort [with Erna Denera, Gustaw Schwegler] (1913) [4:15] Peter Unkel: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Am stillen Herd (1913) [2:46] Karl Jörn: Parsifal: Anfortas! Die Wunde! (1913) [4:29] Hermann Jadlowker: Parsifal: Nur eine Waffe taugt (1914) [4:01] Johannes Sembach: Die Walküre: Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond (1917) [3:14] Karl Erb: Die fliegende Holländer: Willst jenes Tag's.. (1917) [2:54] Adolf Lussmann: Tristan und Isolde: Wohim nun Tristan scheidet (1921) [3:41] Josef Mann: Tristan und Isolde: Das Schiff? Siehst du's noch nicht? (1919) [4:08] Petur Jonsson: Tannhäusser: Stets soll nur dir mein Lied ertönen (1922) [4:08] Otto Wolf Tristan und Isolde: Muss ich dich so versteh'n (1925) [2:10] Adolf Löltgen: Die Walküre: Siegmund heiss' ich (1932) [4:17] Tenors as noted above with recording dates; no accompaniment information provided PREISER 89940 [75:49]

This is a handsome collection of Wagnerian tenors recorded between 1907 and 1932. Although the quarter century of German singers produces accustomed gems the bulk were recorded in the earlier part of that period, in roughly the decade between 1907 and 1917. I’m not sure if Otto Wolf’s 1925 Grammophon is a late acoustic or early electric but apart from him the only definitely electric recording is a private one made in 1932 by Adolf Löltgen which sounds either to have been badly warped or off-centre. Restoration has done well for the voice but little appears to have been possible for the piano, which is a jangling simulacrum of a keyboard.   This disc is in effect a “disc of the book.” Compiler Einhard Luther has written three volumes so far in the Biographie eines Stimmfaches series. His third is devoted to singers in Germany during the Imperial date of the title of the disc, 1871-1918. This disc is therefore a document of some of the many singers of that period singing in Germany. And this being the case there are no Austrian singers or indeed American, English, Slavic, French or Italian. Other discs will reflect singers from other countries, as will other documentary books by Luther.   One of the enjoyable features of this slice of (essentially) acoustic Wagneriana is the variety of the singers. Some are well known - Briesemeister, Erb, Jadlowker – whilst others much less so; Fritz Trostorff, Franz Xaver Battisti and Benno Haberl for example. I found Briesemeister, commanding if rather bleaty in his extract from Siegfried in 1908. Knote, less well known, proves impressive in In fernen Land though if anything his much later electrics, made when he was about sixty, are even more impressive.   Trostorff proves an inconsistent artist if this extract can be evaluated objectively whilst Hans Tänzler certainly sounds older than thirty – and he struggles technically at times albeit his enunciation, as with so many here, is superb. I prefer Karl Jörn to Jadlowker in Parsifal – the former gives the latter a lesson in expression - and whilst I enjoyed Sembach he too, like Briesemeister, has an audible flutter.  Erb is light but fluid – his best days were yet to come – and Josef Mann is steady; he died on stage in 1921.   The transfers have a real immediacy; surface noise is unavoidable but it’s not at all damaging to one’s listening pleasure. Nor has unhelpful equalisation robbed the grooves of detail and upper partials. There are no biographical notes on the singers, simply an explanation of the concept behind the disc. Luther’s book will be an important reference and this disc reflects some of the lasting pleasures that his work has clarified.   Jonathan Woolf     Advertising on Musicweb Donate and keep us afloat   New Releases Nimbus Podcast Obtain 10% discount Special offer 50% off Musicweb sells the following labels Acte Préalable (THE Polish label) Altus 10% off Atoll 10% off CRD 10% off Hallé 10% off Lyrita 10% off Nimbus 10% off Nimbus Alliance Prima voce 10% off Red Priest 10% off Retrospective 10% off Saydisc 10% off Sterling 10% off Follow us on Twitter Subscribe to our free weekly review listing sample Sample: See what you will get Editorial Board MusicWeb International Founding Editor    Rob Barnett Senior Editor John Quinn Seen & Heard Editor Emeritus    Bill Kenny Editor in Chief    Vacant MusicWeb Webmaster    David Barker MusicWeb Founder    Len Mullenger

Return to Index

Reviews from previous months Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.