Christian Gerhaher’s song recital discs have received ecstatic plaudits
from many sources, including me. This is his very first disc of operatic
arias and it’s every bit as exciting as his
lieder discs, though,
revealing even more of this unique singer’s skill and artistry.
As with his
Ferne
Geliebte disc,
one of the most interesting things about
Romantic Arias is
the choice of repertoire. I expect that most listeners will be familiar
only with the extracts from
Tannhäuser. Gerhaher and Harding
have plundered the lesser-known corners of the German repertoire to
give us a collection which, in the words of the booklet note, “takes
its cue from the musical quality, rather than the popularity, of the
pieces in question”. It’s revealing and interesting, and it whets the
appetite of the listener to discover more. Schubert, for example, always
had a troubled relationship with opera, but the extracts from the two
operas represented here are worth more than a second listen, especially
when interpreted by such masterful musicians. The count in Schubert’s
Graf von Gleichen burns with yearning for his home and family
in an aria encompassing both longing and fear, twin emotions which Gerhaher
inhabits to the full. The numbers from
Alfonso und Estrella
are just as successful, not least the bewitching invocation to nature
which opens
Sie mir gegrüßt, o Sonne, and Gerhaher’s celebrated
skill with words helps to enliven what could be the otherwise pedestrian
narration of
Der Jäger ruhte hingegossen.
The singer still has that exceptional beauty of tone. Gerhaher is possessed
of one of the finest lyrical baritones at work in this or any age. He
has a gentle smoothness to his voice that can be alluring and incredibly
seductive, even in repertory that can sometimes appear turgid. Wolfram’s
invocation from Act 2 of
Tannhäuser has never sounded so attractive:
I forgot the sometimes tortuous wordplay in the face of such beautiful
sound. This is a Wolfram I could listen to again and again, and the
Abendstern solo is wonderfully poetic. No-one who heard him
sing Wolfram in
the
Royal Opera’s 2012 Tannhäuser
will forget it in a hurry, and his beauty of tone, combined with his
insight into the text, means that, in the words of another commentator,
the listener feels that he is in touch with Wolfram’s innermost thoughts.
Even more compelling, however, is the intensity with which Gerhaher
appears to have considered every single phrase. It’s often said – rightly
– that Gerhaher approaches opera with a lieder-singer’s ear for detail,
and it’s this that makes his performances live and breathe in a way
that lifts them into the realm of the very special. Listen, for example,
to the recitative that begins the excerpt from
Genoveva: it
never drags or stumbles, but Gerhaher uses the words to compel the music
along, giving us a real impression of action unfolding on stage, in
this case Siegfried saddling his horse to ride home. In that paragraph
Gerhaher captures all the excitement and anticipation of a man bound
for home, but he does so in a way that is lyrical and compelling in
the extreme. This, however, is only the start of the drama, because
(false) news arrives, via one of the disc’s brief but beautiful contributions
from the excellent Maximilian Schmitt, of Genoveva’s adultery. This
throws Siegfried into a tumult of dismay and regret which finally gives
way to determination to visit a local sorceress to find the truth. Gerhaher
immerses himself in every aspect of the scene, from elation to despair
and everything in between. It’s compelling in the extreme, beautifully
sung and dramatically realised. For this track alone this CD would be
worth its purchase price.
In that scene from
Genoveva you can hear exactly when the turning
point comes – joy begins to turn to suspicion with the phrase “Da hackt
ein Rab am Fenster” – and Gerhaher’s vocal colour changes audibly to
accommodate it. This, though, is only one example of a time where Gerhaher’s
skill with words brings the disc to life. Most of the arias on the disc,
such as that from
Genoveva, chart a character’s journey from
one emotion to another. This gives Gerhaher a good opportunity to demonstrate
how good he is at owning and communicating a different series of moods.
You can hear this again in the well phrased Nicolai number when Edmund
moves from seeking revenge to suppressing the urge, or in Lysiart’s
aria of vengeance from
Euryanthe which brings the disc to a
storming close.
The orchestral playing is first rate too, and it’s particularly impressive
the way Daniel Harding gets the Bavarian RSO to shade down their sound
in the Schubert numbers so that the strings even sound as though they
were playing on authentic instruments. The instrumental solos, such
as the cello in the Nicolai number, are always beguiling, and the colour
and verve of the orchestra’s playing has every bit as good a contribution
to make to the success of this disc.
It’s three more cheers for this disc then, an exciting, beautiful and
enlightening journey through early German Romantic opera with one of
that period’s finest vocal exponents. Had this come my way earlier,
I would probably have made it one of my discs of 2012.
Simon Thompson
