The Final German Blog

On Prometheus (the first video)

It sounds so romantic when it’s read this way, I just really love the way he pronounces the ending consonants so softly. It sounded really clean the way he read, full of emotion, but not overly emoted or overly low in volume… until the end when he finishes, using “den” really harshly to signal the end of the poem.

2nd reading

This one instantly I loved more, he used the ending consonants and volume throughout. Now I understand why German sounds so angry to people. The diction really supplemented the content of the poem, really nice the way he uses “dem” and all the closed vowels. the word dunst had a really nice delayed st at the end of it. Operfsteurem was a really nice word as well, you could really hear the emphasis on the ‘steur’ part.

3rd reading.

Oh yes, I love the introduction of this piece. This sounds like a live reading as opposed to one done in the studio. From the very first he gets me with the long vowels. “übe”

Fischer-Dieskau—

All his consonants are extremely clean — dunst, gleich, köpft. Despite the volume of the song, he still manages to make the ch final consents soft in the context of the word. In his interpretation there just seems to be more dynamics, beyond that he’s helped my he music, he just seems to make more out of the words and phrases themselves. 

Matthias Goerne

Saving the best for last? Between the two I still like Dieskau’s more I think.  Something I really hear well in his recording is how well he rolls his r’s like in the word Bergeshöhn. On the word “Götter” it sounds a little more open then closed. Do my ears deceive me? Something that he doesn’t do is roll his r’s so much, Dorothea Röschmann seemed to roll her r’s everywhere, even when I thought there was only one flipped r’.

am Spinnrade

Christian Oelze, for being a tour-de-force song, she has such a lyrical voice, and I love it! You can really hear hear the rolled r’s, but no vowel or consonant is misplaced. Often when I hear this aria done by young singers, they seem to try to over-muscle the phrases, and her breaths are inaudible and her demeanor with the text is quite calm. It sort of reminds me of a frog in a slowly boiling pot. In the same way her voice bubbles over but never loses its ring or intensity. Especialy when the text stops with “und at, seen Kuss” she does a really good job of using the [x] and also the [k] of Kuss to accentuate the text there.

For Angelika Kirchschlager: how can you not love to say Angelika? I like the idea of humanized performance, because operatic works and even art-song can be so esoteric and over the top, they do a really good job of bringing the energy to a digestible level. Her voice is just one great stream of sound. I also enjoy the tempo that she takes, a bit slower than Oelze at times, but just as meaningful. When she dips into the low notes on the word “zerstückt”, the note is so full and she still gets the “ckt” out at an acceptable volume. The r’s are really strange, almost imperceptible. It must be a dialect!

The Last Magic... Flute

Wow, what beautiful singing. Really hard to believe that is coming out of a person when she presses the gas on those notes. It is so powerful it’s overwhelming. Something that I’m not sure how German it really is, is how she (at the end) sang a very rolled r in the word “Ruh’” before the im Tode sein— she used the rolled r to catapult herself to the top. A seemingly simple aria, she does a good job of rolling r’s throughout, such as in the word “Tränen” and the doubled m’s in Nimmer and kommt. I love the “ist” before the word es where she has a dramatic glottal stop. Even on tricky descending lines such as on “ewig” she still manages to put a nice little soft ch at the. And even on “zurück” she puts a soft k. She doesn’t make an event out of the individual sounds, rather, she lines them up with the meaning of the text. 

The second video is great. They coordinate their language very nicely when they are both singing together. Nice ending on the word “Lieb” and additionally on the word “deutlich”, they coordinate the ch sound very nicely. “Nichts” as well, has a nice ch sound to it. The v of Weib is great as well. You also get a very clear ending t’s “Götter” wherein they have stops between the first part of the word and second part.

The Presents of a Rose.

It’s so nice to have just one video to really focus, thank you for the relief! Joyce is one of my favorite Mezzo-Soprano’s, and Diana Damrau is one of the best singing actresses of our time!  The first time I heard the presentation of the rose was at Songfest, Susanne Mentzer was singing it to another soprano in the program. I was stunned by its beauty the first time, as I am now with this excerpt. 

You were so right about the sound on these high notes, she makes them sound so seamless, it’s almost a wonder they still sound like words, like “himmel”. 

The preparation of the consonants in the word by Damrau “stricke” seem so interesting to me, in a way, she almost holds the vowel hostage and breaks before the ck part of the word in order to really get a good k sound. Both of their diction is superb! Not to mention their voices sound fantastic together. You get a lot of good ’s’ sounds on vergessen, and a nice vocalized t on the word “tod” from Joyce. 

Light Listening, more like Dipthong City.

Wagner! Meier was a Wagner singer wasn’t she? We’ve heard the voice and now we get to hear the music!

Re: Kurt Moll.

He had a way with dynamics, and really mastering that seemingly effortless stillness on stage. You can really tell from he first phrase he really knows the language. “mitsammen” has excellent doubled m’s! The o-slash on Hört is perfect. He rolls his r’s expertly. Lot’s of prayer needed for this video. It’s interesting that there is a forest and you get to just enjoy the stylized acting and space of the music while in the trees. The f in “auf” is really nice. The double f in “hoffen” is equally nice. With his singing, you really feel more of the text in the context of the music, because he delivers it so well. Chewing the dipthongs as well, like in the word “einzig”, you can hear the clear delineation of the a and the i sound.

Ben Heppner, heldentenor.

There’s a certain type of anticipation that I get listening to Wagner, knowing that something huge is going to come out of these voices. This guy is fantastic, his notes are nothing less than soaring. Talk about diphthongs, all the “um” words are excellent, “wunderbaum” “Schaun” (this one stuck out as particlulary nice, “Liebstraum”. In the second verse I love the way he goes from “ich” to “schaut” with the soft ç so seamlessly. Sometimes I wish he’d give more v on the word Weib, as he is going to a high note, maybe that would help him spin it up there, though he seems to do it without any extra effort. I really enjoy his voice. There is so much gusto in his instrument.

Mack Attack.

As a huge Weil Lover, I’m thrilled that you picked this piece. I should have realized that Lotte Lenya was his wife! 

Hearing Hildegard Knef is funny at first. From the way she sings/speaks the text, it seems like she understands the song, but her face during the piece for film… it’s creepy as hell. It’s all kind of one dynamic. But I really get the the soft ç and the hard k from her voice. 

Don’t know why Sting choose this song in German… very strange. I hate that I had to find 5 words… I had to listen to it multiple times to find the most obvious choices, there are so many I’m not a big fan of Sting singing in German… it’s overall just bad! 

Ok… 8 Words — 

Strand — does not pronounce sh sound, or the rolled r, or a t at the end.

mancher — was with a k instead of a ç

jenny — should by a j-glide… (does this count?)

geht — should be a closed e

fragt — didn’t hear a t, and the g wasn’t a k

und— all of them don’t have t’s at the end.

Schaaaanen… instead of Schönen with an o slash

Oh Bobby Darin.

Rückert-Lieder

This piece is fantastic, not only because of the density of the text, but because of the lyrical nature itself. I absolutely love Mahler. With how slow the piece itself goes, it is nice to hear the text by itself. In a way, it’s very matter of fact about the emotional state of the narrator, ready for death, lost to the world. It’s relatable because of the feeling of despair. Mahler was bi-polar, and I don’t doubt that he could connect to this text because of the depressive side of his own emotions.

Waltraud Meier has a weight of her voice which I love. You can really hear how open German vowels can be with her voice in words like gestorben and glauben. She does a really nice job of working the ending e’s in words like “lange.” She vibrates through each pitch but keeps the word accent modest so that you still understand the words. Something to note is her interpretation of the word “weltgetümmel” which sounded less ooo and more uh. I wonder why that is. She really understands the rubato and you can really hear how exposed her voice as it sings with the orchestra. She is beautiful… 

These two interpretations are vastly different. Janet Baker has a much more subtle tone it seems. Where Meier had a lot of weight to her voice, Ms. Baker uses, in some places, a more breathy tone. I wish I could hear more doubled consents in words like gekommen and vernommen. I love the clarity in her tone on the high notes, and how easily she descends down the scale. Her ending [x] consonants are softer than I expect them to be, but the language choices she makes seem to go well with the mood of the piece. I also enjoyed the word “wirklich” that she used, accenting the [v] to spin into the word.

The choral version is interesting, because what you feel in the weight of the sound you lose the tempo of the original. There is a sense of loosing time with the Mahler original, and in this place it is replaced with a moving ethereal grace. As you noted, the consonants in this are pretty clean. It’s incredible to hear a choir with that kind of precision and dynamic.