Carrera internacional como cantante de lieder

A partir de hoy vamos a hacer un recorrido por parte de su repertorio. Y lo haremos siguiendo el orden con el que lo cantó en el ámbito internacional.

Festival de Edimburgo 2001

Su debut en el género en el ámbito internacional como cantante de lied se produce en 2001 en el Festival de Edimburgo. El programa:

Schumann: Four songs from Opus 35 and Dichterliebe Opus 48
Liszt: Three Petrarch Sonnets (1838 version)
Richard Strauss: Six songs.

Liszt y Strauss los dejo para más adelante. Por ahora nos quedamos con Dichterliebe (que había tenido una semana de descanso). Como ya hemos tratado el ciclo, entre las canciones he pensado en poner lo que dijo la crítica de ese recital. ¿El motivo? No hay sospechas de marketing detrás. El audio pertenece a 2001 pero no exactamente al recital de Edimburgo, sino a uno ofrecido en Alemania.


The Spectator, Aug 25, 2001
by Michael Tanner

The two peaks of the week in the Queen’s Hall were song recitals. In the first a young German tenor Jonas Kaufmann, new to me and to everyone I have spoken to, created a sensation with his hypnotic, indeed overpowering reading of Schumann’s ‘Dichterliebe’, accompanied ideally by Helmut Deutsch. A pupil of Hans Hotter, he sings with the same directness and art-concealing art, a comparable warmth of tone though of course in a different register. This amazing cycle, always fresh and susceptible of new layers of irony, struck so many notes of pain, all the more chilling for the unaffected delivery, that if Kaufmann had been a less remarkable phenomenon it would have been tempting to leave it at that. As it was, he revealed a quite different kind of mastery by his rapt delivery of Liszt’s three Petrarch Sonnets, showing a Carreras-like warmth of tone, opening up to magical effect. It’s astonishing that a major recording company has not yet taken Kaufmann up and packaged him; no doubt that will happen soon.


1 -"Im wunderschönen Monat Mai"
2- 1'30" "Aus meinen Tränen sprieben"
3- 2'20" "Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne"

YouTube - Dichterliebe 1ª parte

The Times, 17 August 2001

…. But it was preceded by a wonderful morning, Jonas Kaufmann's UK recital debut. He is officially a tenor, but sounds like a baritone -warmly coloured, fruitily substantial tone -with a top, a baritenor maybe. Whatever he is, he is a most vivid communicator, colouring words and notes without the nudge-wink sense of "editing" of some Lieder singers of the past, and without ever compromising unbroken musical lines. He made you listen to Schumann's Dichterliebe as if you were hearing it for the first time, living every single bar of it. He was less at home with Liszt's settings of Petrarch in Italian, but struck form with a Strauss group, making the good songs sound as good as they are, and the less good ones better than we thought. A most remarkable artist.

n°4 "Wenn ich deine Augen seh"
n°5 "Ich will meine Seele tauchen"
n°6 "Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome"
n°7 "Ich grolle nicht, und wenn das Herz auch bricht"

YouTube - Dichterliebe 2ª parte

Luego sigo.

Es verdad, incluso no pasa nada si no nos gusta una época operística, un tipo de voces o un cante en concreto. Casi nunca pasa nada a excepción que nos pase un camión por encima.

Sorry, Angiolina por invadirte el hilo

Invadan lo que quieran, que no me importa.

A mi sí, que somos unos petardos

Entendí que se refería al público; me imaginaba un foro de lied con un "Mundos paralelos" dedicado a la ópera donde entraran cuatro gatos

Ya lo hemos comentado otras veces, me gusta el Dichterliebe de Kaufmann, es de los "expansivos"; después de ver ayer el vídeo que nos puso Angiolina me encaja.

No me lo imagino. Diría que "me gusta el lied" -> "me gusta la ópera" se suele cumplir, pero al revés mucho menos. Impresión mía, no es un estudio sociológico. Pero hablamos de los mismos cantantes, ergo la correlación es fuerte.

Sin embargo, como la correlación autor ópera -> autor lied es mucho menor, entiendo el desinterés que mucho aficionado a la ópera puede sentir por este otro género.

Entre zarzuela, cámara, sinfónica y ópera pasa exactamente lo mismo. Conozco muchísima gente, normalmente de una generación anterior a la nuestra, tremendamente aficionados a la zarzuela pero que no acaban de encontrarle el punto a la ópera, a pesar de haberlo intentado.

En cuanto a la "defensa" y el "ataque" a los cantantes, es algo que nunca he entendido, ni entiendo, ni voy a molestarme en entender.

Vamos genial, Angiolina. Me encanta cómo lo has planteado.

Queda libre la semana de Shidarta (del 28 de junio al 6 de julio) por si alguien quiere cambiar o se anima a incorporarse al grupo

Sigamos con el ciclo:


The Sunday Times, 26 August 2001

... But the young tenor Jonas Kaufmann sang one of the most emotionally raw, risk-taking and revelatory accounts of Schumann's Dichterliebe I've ever heard. This is a fascinating voice -baritonal, rising to a visceral Italianate top -allied to penetrating intelligence and dark, husky, film-star looks, designer stubble and a mop of tousled curls: there's star material here, the classical "discovery" of the 2001 festival so far.

n°8 "Und wüßten's die Blumen, die kleinen"
n°9 "Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen"
n°10 "Hör' ich das Liedchen klingen"

YouTube - Dichterliebe 3ª parte


Guardian, The Observer, 19 August 2001

One other star burst forth this week: the German tenor Jonas Kaufmann, whose lieder recital with pianist Helmut Deutsch had the Queen's Hall audience (and Radio 3 listeners) agog from start to finish. He sings with mesmerising intensity, his voice flexible in range and dynamic, his handling of the words perceptive but never exaggerated. His searing account of Schumann's Dichterliebe was unforgettable - the familiar song-cycle appeared new minted. Edinburgh is famous for its tattoo of pipes and fireworks. Here was another kind, left indelibly on the memory.

n°11 "Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen"
n°12 "Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen"

YouTube - Dichterliebe 4ª parte

Siento el abandono. Aquí termina el ciclo y el homenaje del día a Schumann:


The Herald. Glasgow: Aug 16, 2001
Michael Tumelty


It's all personal taste, of course, and, no question, [Jonas Kaufmann] has a fantastically versatile voice - his complete switch of character and voice, when he produced an authentic Italianate tone colouring for Liszt's Petrarch Sonnets, was extraordinary. And the light athleticism of his voice in the closing Richard Strauss set was as remarkable as his power and intensity in the four Schumann songs with which he opened his concert.


n°13 "Ich hab' im Traum geweinet"
n°14 "Allnächtlich im Traume seh' ich dich"
n°15 "Aus alten Märchen winkt es"

YouTube - Dichterliebe 5ª parte

EdinburghGuide, 15 August 2001
Philip Sawyer

This concert had the making of, and delivered a real treat: a tenor with real intelligence and a burgeoning reputation, and an established pianist with a background in composition and musicology. Here was good programme-planning; here was real music-making; here was a real chamber music experience.

The recital began with four of Schumann's Opus 35 songs, dating from 1840, the year of his marriage to Clara Wieck. These gradually revealed the range of Kaufmann's voice and the considerable pianistic skills of Deutsch. By the end of the fourth song the audience was fully engaged. Then followed Schumann's Dichterliebe, another product of 1840. Here, in this justly famous song-cycle, Kaufmann became the story-teller, never allowing the music to become too dramatic and using subtle body-language to underscore certain songs. Schumann's art is that of a pianist turned composer; in the piano writing of his songs is found not only the singer's line but also a musical commentary to the text. Deutsch revealed facets of the piano part that many performances leave unexplored and used an enormous range of colour and expressive rubato to complement Kaufmann's lines.

After the interval this spectacular pair of musicians performed three Petrarch Sonnets by Liszt, in the early versions, dating from 1838, and six songs by Richard Strauss. The Liszt gave Kaufmann the opportunity to show of his almost Helden-Tenor qualities and showed Deutsch to be a pianist of no little virtuosity; the range of the vocal part is extraordinary and the piano part is 'orchestral'. The audience was taken into a different world of experience, almost that that of Italian opera. The Strauss songs returned to German Romanticism and were a beautifully-performed reminder of just how much Strauss's music (he lived well into the 20th century) relies on the early German Romantic world of Schumann.

It is a pity that these Queen's Hall recitals are heard only once. The Kaufmann/Deutsch recital was worthy, for a number of very good reasons, of being heard live by a much wider audience.

n°16 "Die alten, bösen Lieder"

YouTube - Dichterliebe 6ª parte

Mañana más.

Gran trabajo Angiolina.
Me he vuelto a aficionara Kaufmann. Tiene una voz preciosa

Edimburgo 2002

Seguimos en Edimburgo al año siguiente, donde volvió para cantar Das Lied von der Erde, la sinfonía Faust de Liszt y lo que nos ocupa, que es:

Schubert - Die schöne Müllerin.

La grabación que utilizaré, sin embargo, no corresponde a este año sino a 2004 y pertenece a un recital en Bruselas. No pondré el ciclo completo, volveré brevemente sobre él cuando hable del disco :


San Francisco Classical Voice, August 20, 2002
By Janos Gereben


Of the three noteworthy recitals I heard Saturday, two tenors (!) used the gray matter above the oral cavity excellently well, and one mezzo didn't. Jonas Kaufmann is an exciting discovery, Ian Bostridge sings more admirably than ever, but Michelle DeYoung now needs to be reclassified from homecoming queen to a TV anchor on a small local station. .....
Kaufmann, a 33-year-old from Munich, performed Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin, a song cycle that fits the hour-long format exactly. Accompanied by Viennese-born, Munich-resident Helmut Deutsch (the piano cradling and uplifting the voice), Kaufmann exhibited focused, warm intelligence, passion appropriate to the songs, and a very interesting voice. Or voices. Three of them.

There is a velvety lyric tenor on top, a hint of steel beneath, and somewhere in-between or on the side, a high baritone. Normally, when you hear a singer with "voices," it can drive you up the wall. Kaufmann has successfully integrated them and what is obvious is a beautiful lyric voice, used superbly, and then some of the other stuff if you bother to analyze it.

2.- Wohin? - Texto

[flash 335,28]http://www.divshare.com/flash/playlist?myId=11523919-8f7[/flash]


3.- Halt! - Texto

[flash 335,28]http://www.divshare.com/flash/playlist?myId=11523920-23f[/flash]


The Scotsman | Date: August 19, 2002

The best way to tell if an audience is on your side is to make a mistake. If they sit in stony silence then you’ve lost them; if they applaud, you’ve got them hooked. Jonas Kaufmann swapped a verse around mid-way through Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin on Saturday night, asked for our forgiveness and was rewarded with a laugh and a clap, and he had us in the palm of his hand.

While Kaufmann captivated with his beguiling upper register, his accompanist, Helmut Deutsch was cleverly mesmerising us behind the scenes, supporting Kaufmann like an older, wiser butler. He was certainly in charge of interpretation - while Kaufmann sings like an ardent youth, Deutsh contributes authority and understanding and they make a great duo.

Schubert’s setting of Wilhelm Müller’s text, The Miller’s Daughter, divides an hour into 20 songs. The initial songs are charming but the idyll soon becomes strained as the complexities of lust and love envelope the narrator. Kaufmann’s singing delighted us. Playing with light and shade and on the edge of earnest yearning the spellbinding atmosphere in the hall was thanks entirely to Kaufmann’s charm and his compatibility with Schubert’s intentions.

6.- Der Neugierige - Texto

[flash 335,28]http://www.divshare.com/flash/playlist?myId=11523927-c06[/flash]

8.- Morgengruss - Texto

[flash 335,28]http://www.divshare.com/flash/playlist?myId=11523929-0e6[/flash]

Muy bien. Da gusto empezar el día así. (Con el paquete de exámenes que me espera....)
Y ya han salido todos los defensores de JK en el hilo paralelo. Todos los expertos parecen de acuerdo.... que sí vale.

Las imágenes que han sacado en youtube son un poco así, cursilada, y sobre todo lo giratorio.... no me ha gustado. Pero aquí tenemos a la Múllerin sin flores. Pues sobriamente. Maravilla.

Para Angiolina .

Muchas gracias y mucho ánimo con tu paquete de exámenes.

De acuerdo con lo de los videos.

Seguimos:

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 21 August 2002
Tim Ashley

Very much the discovery of last year's festival, German tenor Jonas Kaufmann has continued making waves this time round. At the end of his performance of Schubert's Die Schöne Müllerin with pianist Helmut Deutsch, the audience was in bits and pandemonium broke out, leaving Kaufmann looking slightly bemused at the sensation he had caused.

Kaufmann already has sex-symbol status, though what is crucially important is that the beauty of his artistry matches his looks. His voice is dark and handsome. He achieves psychological and dramatic insight by working through the music rather than going against it. Lines are never fractured for the sake of textual emphasis; a tremendous palette of vocal colour generates the intensity.

Schubert's song cycle, often romanticised, consequently becomes a tragic monologue of great complexity, a journey from optimism to despair via the tangled irrationalities of desire. Kaufmann's voice rears in elation at the onset of passion, the tone then shifting with unease as doubt sets in. The final realisation of betrayal is done with heart-stopping simplicity.

The difficult closing song, in which the protagonist's voice is replaced by that of the river in which he has drowned himself, is surreal and otherworldly, haunting you long after the final chords have died away.

Deutsch, meanwhile, matches Kaufmann's approach turn for turn, exposing extraordinary layers of meaning in Schubert's piano writing.

The reaction at the end was fully justified. This was an overwhelming experience - the greatest performance of the work I've ever heard.

10.- Tränenregen - Texto

[flash 335,28]http://www.divshare.com/flash/playlist?myId=11523942-ee9[/flash]

11.- Mein! - Texto

[flash 335,28]http://www.divshare.com/flash/playlist?myId=11523943-98b[/flash]

Parte lo ha escuchado para empezar el día y yo ahora con el café.

Me ha llamado la atención Morgengruss, he escuchado otras versiones y la única conclusión a la que he llegado es la obvia: qué diferentes pueden ser las visiones de una canción!