Track Listing

1. "In fernem Land, unnahbar euren Schritten"
2. "Mein lieber Schwan!"
3. "Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön"
4. "Die Weisheitslehre dieser Knaben" - Jonas Kaufmann, Michael Volle, Coro di Teatro Regio Parma, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Claudio Abbado
5. Recitativ und Arie: "Was quälst du mich..."
6. Schon, wenn es beginnt zu tragen...und mein Herz will ihm nach
7. "Gott! Welch Dunkel hier!" In des Lebens Frühlingstagen"
8. Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond
9. "Amfortas! Die Wunde!" - Jonas Kaufmann, Margarethe Joswig, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Claudio Abbado
10. "Nur eine Waffe taugt" - Jonas Kaufmann, Coro di Teatro Regio Parma, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Claudio Abbado

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8775 in Music
• Released on: 2009-09-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .23 pounds
• Running time: 69 minutes

CD Description
Jonas Kaufmann is now established as the most successful and versatile tenor of his generation, attracting rave reviews for his live performances and recordings. Following the international success of Romantic Arias, Kaufmann returns with this album of outstanding arias from German opera; music of his homeland which he grew up hearing. The great opera conductor Claudio Abbado directs the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Arnold Schoenberg Chor in his first ever vocal recital recording for Decca, and his first Decca recording for almost 40 years. The album cover shows Jonas Kaufmann as "Wanderer"--inspired by the much-loved painting by German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich. 

Customer Reviews

Kaufmann back on home territory - and in tremendous form
I have heard Jonas Kaufmann live (and been very impressed) but not yet in any Wagner. On the evidence of this disc, he is more than ready, as long as he has the vocal stamina, to take the world by storm in the big Wagnerian roles, culminating, I hope, one day - but not too soon - in Tristan. The real gems here are the two Lohengrin and two Parsifal arias which bookend the recital. Kaufmann is powerful, tender, touching and stirring by turns and the voice can do exactly what he wants it to: the pianissimo mezza-voce opening to "Mein Lieber Schwan!" is stunning; then he opens up into "O Elsa! Nur ein Jahr an deine Seite!" in a wholly convincing way: love and desperation perfectly combined in a melting, but virile, mix. Half way through the last "Parsifal" aria, it came to me; say "Jon Vickers" while you are listening to Kaufmann there and you come closest to the voice his most resembles: the husky, baritonal quality with a strange beauty of its own but which does not always quite suit the Romantic repertoire he can also undertake - hence the mixed reactions to his Pinkerton and the recital album "Romantic Arias". His voice is much more in the tradition of Vickers, Ramon Vinay and Ludwig Suthaus; it is quite absurd of one German reviewer to waffle on about how Kaufmann "carries on the great tradition of German tenors such as Fritz Wunderlich"; he sounds absolutely nothing like Wunderlich, much as I love both. Nor is he anything like the honeyed, sensuous tones of Domingo or the sunlit, thrilling sound of Pavarotti: this is not an Italianate voice but a real Heldentenor in the making, one to succeed Ben Heppner. Having got Vickers' voice in mind, I went back to the magnificent "Winterstürme" and confirmed that at times the two voices are virtually indistinguishable - but his Siegmund is so compelling that the truncation of the aria with a concert ending is a disappointment: you want to hear Sieglinde come swooping in!

The wonder of this voice is that it can still sing Tamino so winningly and delicately; it shows that Kaufmann really is looking after his instrument. He has mostly abandoned the little, glottal, "gulping" tic that irritated me in the "Madama Butterfly" and seems capable of more nuance than ever. It is good to hear the extended excerpt from "Die Zauberflöte" where Kaufmann's sensitive singing is complemented by a nice Speaker from Michael Volle and the Regio di Parma chorus. It's almost as if Kaufmann is making a point by including so much Mozart in a disc also distinguished by its Wagner performances; he has retained the flexibility of his youthful voice and hence still has Tamino very much in his repertoire.

The slightly recherché items here are the two Schubert arias from "Fierrebras" and Alfonso und Estrella". They are not the greatest music Schubert ever wrote by far, but it's good to hear something outside the normal, hackneyed repertoire and Kaufmann sings them as well as he sings everything in this lovely recital. The second aria is particularly charming; typical of the composer's strophic manner with variations.

Finally, the great "Fidelio" aria is given full weight and yet again brings to mind Vickers at his best - yet not even Vickers could start the G on "Gott" in the falsetto and swell the note into full voice as seamlessly as Kaufmann manages to do here. It is such touches of individual artistry that mark out Kaufmann as no Vickers clone - but goodness knows there is room for two such artists within fifty years.

The accompaniments by Abbado and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra are as fine as you would expect; the orchestra discreetly adopts vibrato-less HIPster practice for the Mozart and the Beethoven, but soups it up for the Wagner and makes a beautiful, rich, sonorous sound. Abbado's phrasing and tempi are flawless, of course. The horns in the "Fidelio" aria are especially grand.

This is the best recital disc I have heard for a long time and I am so glad to see Kaufmann returning to the territory where he really rules rather than succumbing to commercial pressures to do more Verdi and Puccini. He can be great in both and I am very much looking forward to hearing Kaufmann's Don Carlo at Covent Garden next week - but it is in the core German territory where his voice really belongs and excels.

A Mixed Success
There is a part of Germany just north of Nuremberg called the Franconian Switzerland, where rushing rivers plunge through steep, thickly wooded valleys, out of which rocky outcrops offer poets, lovers and suicides the ideal spot to brood in a melancholy fashion on the woes of the world. I love the place (not only for its landscape, I should add: in this part of the world there is the greatest concentration of breweries per head of population anywhere in Europe, and the beer is excellent), and have often felt my breast swelling with longing to dash off a few lines of anguished verse, or perhaps an opera aria or two as soon as I get home. I must admit never to have made good on this noble intention, but thankfully we're not short on deep-hearted Germans who have done the job before us, and for terribly handsome chaps with golden voices to express all that Sehnsucht in song.

One such is Jonas Kaufmann, and the cover image of this thoroughly enjoyable CD places him almost literally in the landscape of romantic Germany, in slightly odd remakes of paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, where Kaufmann is now the lonely fellow alone above the mist. I must admit to finding the effect very funny, although I'm sure that's not the effect the producers wished to achieve, but thankfully one needn't be distracted too long, as the music is the real star here.

In many ways, this is a very ambitious programme, beginning with Mozart, then, via Schubert and Beethoven, making its way to five meaty arias by Wagner which frame the earlier pieces. These are all real hits, especially the wonderful "In fernem Land" from Lohengrin. The Beethoven, too, is very good, and Kaufmann's passionate, full-throated delivery is absolutely ideal for Florestan. The Schubert arias I must confess not to knowing very well, but he does make a good case for them being heard more often, and they make for a fascinating bridge between Mozart and Beethoven. The two Mozart arias are the weak point on the disc, although simply because, to my ears, Kaufmann is just a bit too muscular to be a happy Tamino. He possesses a stunning technique, a fabuluously warm baritone range and thrilling high notes, but for "Dies Bildnis" from "The Magic Flute" he sounds like he's working too hard at points, and some of his mezza voce work isn't that happy.

Is this a five star disc? No: the Mozart arias prevent that accolade, but I will strongly recommend it to lovers of opera and country rambles alike.

A worthy successor to Bjorling
He possesses a very fine lyric tenor voice, and it is a faultless sound production. It is a great pity that he has decided to restrict his repertoire to German composers/language only.