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Dresden-born Schöffler
was taught by Mario Sammarco in Italy,
a fact sometimes forgotten when considering
his long career. Yet it was back in
Dresden that he learned his trade, spending
thirteen years with the State Opera
after having being spotted by Fritz
Busch in 1925. His most internationally
renowned years were after the War when
he visited Bayreuth, the Met and Covent
Garden and made a long series of distinguished
recordings. Preiser has now collated
some discs made principally in a six-month
period between June 1946 and January
1947. The exception is the 1949 Mastersinger
extract with Maria Reining.
His wasn’t the most
glamorous or burnished of voices – as
the very first extract, from The Marriage
of Figaro (one of his best assumptions)
clearly shows. But it was versatile,
idiomatic, intensely musical and was
finely controlled at the top. His legato
is fine in Don Giovanni – Busch had
clearly left a real Mozartian impression
– and though his O Isis und Osiris
isn’t the blackest of bass-baritones
it’s extremely well modulated. His Wagner
shows the ease of production of which
Schöffler was capable and it’s
Was duftet doch der Flieder in
particular, recorded with Knappertsbusch,
that sits so beautifully for his voice.
He left behind a complete set with the
conductor in Vienna but this extract
comes from a Zurich recording session
for Decca, for whom he recorded extensively.
He plays off Reining very convincingly
two years later (listen out for the
Ach, ya, so richly characterful)
and is in fine form for the underappreciated
Karl Rankl in their joint sessions.
His Walküre extract – he recorded
it three times in total, twice for Decca
and once for Amadeo, is splendid. His
Otello is on perhaps a somewhat lower
level of engagement, though his experience
in Italian opera was extensive. Then
there are four souvenirs of Schöffler
the lieder singer, three of them by
Brahms, one by Schumann, all accompanied
by Ernest Lush. Here his attention to
specifics of enunciation is laudable
and the voice is intrinsically splendid
– it’s just that I find the singing
rather inert.
The copies are good
ones; Preiser’s latest batch has proved
commendably uniform in sourcing good
quality originals, and there’s a brief
biographical note. Matrix and release
details are here as well, something
that can’t always be taken for granted
these days.
Jonathan Woolf