What has happened to René Pape? The moment I started playing
this new recital album, warning bells sounded in the background.
Was this the voice as I had remembered it from "Das Wunder
der Heliane" (Korngold), with its smooth, velvety power
and ringing top G flat? That cameo role was recorded as long
ago as 1992 and since then Pape has ascended the ranks of bass-baritones
until he is now acclaimed, according to the sticker on the front
of my review copy, as "the premier basso cantante of our
time" (Gramophone) and even "the greatest operatic
bass in the world" (FAZ). Yet what I was hearing didn't
quite justify those encomiums: a pleasant voice with some agreeable
features but too often grey and underpowered. Somewhat rattled
and experiencing a crisis of reviewer's confidence, I turned
to first one then another in my collection of the greatest exponents
of Wotan, specifically recordings of that magnificent conclusion
to "Die Walküre" which Pape essays here and which
demands the most extraordinary range, power and pathos from
a Heldenbariton of the first rank. And I began to listen, not
to one, or two, but to no fewer than ten recordings:
Friedrich Schorr (1927, conductor Blech); Marcel Journet - in
French (1928, Coppola); Ferdinand Frantz (1949, Moralt and 1954,
Fürtwängler); Sigurd Björling (1951, Karajan); Hans Hotter
(1953, Krauss and 1958, Ludwig); George London (1961, Leinsdorf);
last and definitely least, Theo Adam (1967, Böhm).
Their great, brazen voices rang out across the years and I asked
myself whether Pape was really in their company. The answer
is clear: not really. He has none of the heft and authority,
the blooming top notes, the fullness of tone in the centre of
the voice that mark out his predecessors. His tone is somewhat
thin, nasal and constricted and he tends to swoop on to top
notes (as in "Leb wohl"). Puzzlingly for a singer
who prides himself on subtle enunciation of the text, he does
not even begin to suggest the heart-breaking tenderness of Wotan's
Farewell.
Now; a great deal of this might have something to do with Barenboim's
lacklustre conducting. There is simply no ecstasy in his direction
of the Staatskapelle Berlin, which yields in so many respects
to their eminent and often incandescent predecessors. Again,
I find the claims on the label blurb to be inflated. I have
never found Barenboim to be a great Wagnerian and he is here
at his enervated worst: conducting which is hopelessly turgid
and slack; no pulse, no drama, no sense of inexorable forward
momentum.
Disconcerted, I decided to try the other end of the recital:
the concluding aria is "O du mein holder Abendstern"
from "Tannhäuser - a showpiece, if ever there was
one, for a bass-baritone to show off his legato, sustained beauty
of tone and ability to colour words affectingly. Once again,
my attention began to wander, this time back to Bryn Terfel's
beautiful account on his Wagner recital album with Levine. No
competition here, either; there is a combination of velvet and
steel in Terfel's voice that leaves Pape sounding very ordinary
- and once again, I don't hear anything other than a generalised
melancholy in Pape's interpretation, whereas Terfel lives
Wolfram.
Actually, the best things on this recital are the sandwich items:
excerpts from "Die Meistersinger", "Lohengrin"
and "Parsifal", especially as in the latter Domingo
contributes a lovely, full-toned "reiner Tor" in much-improved
German - no strain at all and consistently believable characterisation.
Yet even here, Pape is no match for distinguished interpreters
of Gurnemanz from the digital stereo era such as Kurt Moll or
Robert Lloyd, let alone giants of the past such as Ludwig Weber,
Hans Hotter et al. I suppose we should be grateful to
have a singer of Pape's distinction able to tackle them in these
days of a dearth of Wagnerian singers and yes, I know we cannot
go on forever living in the past and that it's invidious constantly
to make comparisons to Pape's disadvantage, but once you've
heard what the best can do with these extraordinarily challenging
and complex roles, it's impossible to get them out of your head.
This is obviously a flagship issue by DG, complete with full,
interesting notes, interview and libretto, of a kind increasingly
rare today and they will have a lot invested in the obligatory
accompanying hype - which means that I shall be in all kinds
of trouble from many different quarters for saying what I think
about it. However, do bear in mind just how everything of this
kind is now mercilessly promoted regardless of objectivity.
Others may feel very differently about this recital; I can only
tell it as I hear it and for me this CD is a give-away.
Ralph Moore
Track-listing
Die Walküre - Wotans Abschied und Feuerzauber
Act III - Wotan
1. Leb wohl, du kühnes, herrliches Kind!
2. Der Augen leuchtendes Paar
3. Loge, hör!
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Act II
4. Fliedermonolog: Was duftet doch der Flieder (Hans Sachs)
5. Hört, ihr Leut (Nachtwächter)
Act III
6. Verachtet mir die Meister nicht (Hans Sachs, Volk)
Lohengrin
Act I
7. Gott grüss euch (König, Sachsen, Thüringer)
Parsifal
Act III – Gurnemanz, Parsifal
8. O Gnade, höchstes Heil!
9. Und ich, ich bin’s
10. Gesegnet sei, du Reiner
11. Wie dünkt mich doch die Aue
Tannhäuser
Act III - Wolfram
12. Wie Todesahnung…O du mein holder Abendstern
René Pape (bass); Placido Domingo (tenor) 
