Richard 1 Strauss Helmut Deutsch Jonas Kaufmann - Strauss Lieder (28 tracks) +Album Reviews

An award-winning Strauss recital

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 11/08/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Just as I write, the Gramophone's 2007 award for best vocal recital went to this album of Strauss songs from rising tenor Jonas Kaufmann. I had given up, more or less, on new lieder singers who can match the old standbys. But in many ways this CD deserves the prize. Kaufmann (age 38, born in Munich, now established at the Zurich Opera) possesses an attractive, somewhat beefy tenor, and his approach to Strauss is as robust as that of Ben Heppner or James King, one of Kaufmann's teachers. The stereotype of Strauss is that his songs are soaring lyrical flights devoid of profound emotion or poetically deep texts. But sheer beauty counts for a lot.

Kaufmann's semi-operatic approach is quite winning (another hefty tenor, Peter Anders, famously sang these songs in operatic style sixty years ago in wartime and post-war Germany), and his ringing tone brings a heroic element to melodies usually taken by sopranos -- Strauss was married to a gifted lyric soprano, for whom much of his song output was written. Helmut Deutsch is a skillful accompanist, somehwat on the workmanlike side. Sadly, the sound of the piano is clangy and clattery, and the engineers give Kaufmann's voice a metallic edge at loud volume. One expects Kaufmann to receive better treatment now that he's an exclusive Decca artist.

All in all, for those who love lieder, this CD is a welcome find and a harbinger of more exciting work from this rising star in the future.

P.S. Sept. 2009 - Anyone who loves this CD should check out a live Schone Mullerin from Kaufmann in 2004. It's on YouTube in good sound, and the singer is in glorious voice, quite the best we've had form a tenor since Wunderlich so far as pure vocal sound goes."

Who needs sopranos when you've got these guys?

Ben Brouwer | Minneapolis, MN USA | 05/23/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Jonas Kaufmann may not be a household name yet, but if he keeps this up, he will be soon. This is an incredible album that every Strauss lover and many of the unconverted need to hear. Gorgeous singing, with extraordinarily sensitive accompaniment from Deutsch. They work here as truly collaborative partners. A match made in heaven, to borrow a cliché.

Listen to their "Morgen!" and you may never need to hear a soprano or the orchestrated version of that lied again!"

Amazing singer

Rolf W. Niestedt | 02/29/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"
I recently bought this cd because I love the "Lieder' and music of R.Strauss.This singer is amazing,I gave up on ever finding a tenor of this quality.Kaufmann find's a different voice for every song,his heroic tenor can sound soft,exuberant ect.There is no one this day's who come's even close to this.I am tired of tenor's like Bostridge who has at best a thread for a voice ,or Florez,who goes on my nerves after three Arias,so it is good to have Kaufman around,am looking forward to many more recording's.I preordered his cd "Romantic Aries'.

Hopefully the record companies will not ruin his voice with a lot of Wagner.The critic find's his voice reminiscent of Wunderlich,what nonesense,just because Wunderlich is one of his idols (the greatest German tenor).

He is a first J.Kaufmann,not a second Wunderlich."

Glowingly Rich and Resonant Recording and Performance

Pater Ecstaticus | Norway | 11/05/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First of all, don't let yourself be put of (if that could be possible, with such a gorgeous album as this) of tales that the piano sounds 'clangy and clattery', which it simply doesn't. Well, yes, the accoustics are reverberant and they do sometimes interfere with clearest audibility at fortissimi, causing maybe an 'edge' to the sound. But only a little, and certainly never annoyingly so - on the contrary. (And with good or superb audio equipment there should be no trouble at all at discerning the wealth of warmth and detail that the piano and the voice contain, which is just fine.)

About the voice of Jonas Kaufmann, that has to heard to be believed, of course ;) It is a strong and resonant instrument that is delicately handeled. Please excuse my maybe somewhat excentric view on this, but if one would be able to describe the 'bouquet' and 'taste' of Herr Kaufmann's voice, one could maybe describe it as clean and fresh, rounded off with lots of fresh fruit and a nice spicy nose. Or one could describe it as sounding like a trumpet: sometimes sliding from the softly muted to the ringingly resonant, and back, from one note to the other with nicely flowing legato. He sometimes - tastefully - uses slides from one note to another. Also, in some notes, his timbre reminds one of Jon Vickers. But only reminding sideways ... The voice of Jonas Kaufmann is of course as unique as Jon Vickers' ;)

All in all a wonderful album. Please do yourself a favour and buy it, for yourself, or maybe as a gift to someone with whom you want to share the riches of life contained in music and the singing voice, and especially that of Jonas Kaufmann. Highly recommended [alongside the recording of Andrew Kennedy on Hyperion (Richard Strauss: The Complete Songs, Vol. 3)]"

Star Tenor is Born - but will he 'sell' his voice or strive

Abel | Hong Kong | 06/19/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Jonas Kaufmann rightfully boosts as the most unassuming, most talented and handsomest tenor around these days. With the 2007 `Best Vocal' album award, this Strauss Lieder laid the foundation of Jonas Kaufmann's now much more publicised international career.

Kaufmann's Strauss lieder, as we are being told, was taught by Hans Hotter, the acclaimed Wagnerian bass-baritone of the post-WWII era at Bayreuth. Indeed, this album presents the singer's voice in what I would consider the best possible light: the range is highly effectively modulated to various shades and colours as required by the diverse pieces that one seldom hears nowadays. Considering that Hotter is a reknowned bass baritone, he has successfully guided Kaufmann to use his middle and low registers. This aspect, however, does not suppress the upper register that is bright and powerful.

So, with a full and well-developed middle-low register and an attractively hefty upper, Kaufmann is being hailed by some critics as the `best tenor' of the 21st century.

With such a wonderful instrument, the next question certainly is - whether Kaufmann will strive for the pinnacle of singing, or will he, as one critic in Amazon has put it so vividly, `sell his voice to the highest bidder', as even for `selling' alone, this tenor has plenty to sell.

Instead of `graduating' step by step to roles that best suits his voice, would Kaufmann be obliged to please the opera house managers by bouncing forward and backward in roles that suit him and those that had once suited his voice but should rightly be discarded is some thing that fans would wish to know.

I for one am uninteresting in his Italian Mozart (as demonstrated in his 2004 performance of La Clemenza di Tito), and very possibly, his La Traviata, a role that is out of character with his voice. But I totally marvel at his Don Florestan in Fidelio, and even his Huon in Oberon, sung very idiomatically in English, as well as most of his French operatic roles.

The Italian operatic roles that Kaufmann would likely succeed significantly appear to be Tosca, Il Trovatore, Othello, roles that were at one time excelled by Mario del Monaco.

La Traviata should swiftly be discarded, and Rigoletto not to be attempted.

Then, of course, there is the great load of German operatic roles awaiting this rising star."

Search - Richard [1] Strauss, Helmut Deutsch, Jonas Kaufmann :: Strauss: Lieder

CD Details

CD Reviews