Delicate Dresden Shepherdess Sopranos

[Katzelmacher]

I recently listened to the Kempe recording of Ariadne Auf Naxos, a recording I don’t normally favour despite being an admirer of most of the artists involved (particularly James King).

I quickly understood why I don’t return to it more often - I strongly dislike Gundula Janowitz’ voice, which incarnates a number of vocal qualities I’ve always found offensive. Her tone is (as Russell T. Davies might call it) ‘hideously white’, some of the sounds she produces during Es Gibt Ein Reich frankly don’t seem to issue from any kind of human larynx. They resemble more the caterwauling of a small wounded animal.

What’s worse, because her instrument is ‘delicate’, I have the sense that Kempe is reining back the orchestra to accommodate her delicacy.

There’s also the fact that her singing, apart from being aesthetically unpleasant, is also undramatic. Ariadne is a role for a ‘dramatic soprano’, not an overparted Lieder singer.

Janowitz is a blight on a couple of opera recordings I own - the Karajan Walkure being another (Michael Tanner, in a rare moment of concurrence with me, quipped ‘It’s sounds like they cast Aled Jones’).

Don’t mind her in Mozart and I have a double disc of Schubert Lieder which I can enjoy, because she’s on home territory. But whoever thought she was a good fit for Romantic Opera seriously miscalcultated. A shame, as King gives a great performance on that Ariadne and Vickers is a superb Siegmund in Walkure.

A lot of people like Janowtiz’ Vier Letzte Lieder under Karajan. It’s beyond me how anyone could prefer it to, say, Jessye Norman’s version of the same work.

I don’t like Schwarzkopf, either, who was Janowitz’ predecessor in much of this repertoire. I think we were spared the Janowitz Marschallin, though.

Enough with these small, static-voiced singers in opera!

[Keraulophone]

I strongly dislike Gundula Janowitz’ voice, which incarnates a number of vocal qualities I’ve always found offensive. Her tone is (as Russell T. Davies might call it) ‘hideously white’ ... A lot of people like Janowtiz’ Vier Letzte Lieder under Karajan. It’s beyond me how anyone could prefer it to, say, Jessye Norman’s version of the same work.

As it happens, I’ve just been playing the Blu-ray Disc of the GL/HvK VLL for the first time. The sound is impressive, though not as spectacular as in Karajan’s Also Sprach Zarathustra, which sounds really thrilling on B-r. I’m with you to some extent on her contributions to the operas you mention, but this VLL has long been at or near the top of many people’s favourite versions. I would place it alongside Lucia Popp (Tennstedt/LPO, Solti/ChicagoSO or Giulini/LAPO), Lisa Della Casa/Böhm, Nina Stemme/Pappano and (ok now, but will IMO develop to greatness) Lise Davidsen/Salonen. For me, Jessye Norman/Masur is just ‘too much of a good thing’ in this piece, with her vast vocal resources thrilling but not sounding appropriate to the mood of the text (eg her huge lugubrious crescendo on ‘seele’ in BS). The silveryness of Popp and the inner glow of Janowitz (well matching the sound of Karajan’s BPO) don’t lack the requisite power for such passages while conveying, to me, a tenderness needed by the autumnal/evening of life text. I don’t hear anything ‘hideously white’ here - quite the opposite. In 1988/89, at the age of 52, Janowitz recorded some Strauss orchestral songs with the Academy of London/Richard Stamp for Virgin/EMI (now on Erato: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Strauss-Gun.../dp/B001TGIH04 - there are five Amazon reviews, all 5* FWIW). She is still in reasonably fine voice here, occasionally hardening at the top (eg in Befreit) while her long experience in these songs brings satisfying rewards IMO.

P.S. I forgot to mention Elisabeth Grümmer (with Richard Kraus/BerlinSO) in VLL, recorded when she was 60 but conveying these songs with real meaning. As someone has written in the YT comments, ‘Far better than many other so-called “legendary” or “reference” versions. Absolutely splendid, and this is precisely what Richard Strauss had in mind. A long over-arching soprano voice, lyrical and yet flexible, radiant and “klingend”... the quintessential quality was brilliance and control over breath, which here is tested to its maximum. What a singer! And very well conducted...’.

https://youtu.be/5DM2BBfD4lU

[Katzelmacher]

As it happens, I’ve just been playing the Blu-ray Disc of the GL/HvK VLL for the first time. The sound is impressive, though not as spectacular as in Karajan’s Also Sprach Zarathustra, which sounds really thrilling on B-r. I’m with you to some extent on her contributions to the operas you mention, but this VLL has long been at or near the top of many people’s favourite versions. I would place it alongside Lucia Popp (Tennstedt/LPO, Solti/ChicagoSO or Giulini/LAPO), Lisa Della Casa/Böhm, Nina Stemme/Pappano and (ok now, but will IMO develop to greatness) Lise Davidsen/Salonen. For me, Jessye Norman/Masur is just ‘too much of a good thing’ in this piece, with her vast vocal resources thrilling but not sounding appropriate to the mood of the text (eg her huge lugubrious crescendo on ‘seele’ in BS). The silveryness of Popp and the inner glow of Janowitz (well matching the sound of Karajan’s BPO) don’t lack the requisite power for such passages while conveying, to me, a tenderness needed by the autumnal/evening of life text. I don’t hear anything ‘hideously white’ here - quite the opposite. In 1988/89, at the age of 52, Janowitz recorded some Strauss orchestral songs with the Academy of London/Richard Stamp for Virgin/EMI (now on Erato: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Strauss-Gun.../dp/B001TGIH04 - there are five Amazon reviews, all 5* FWIW). She is still in reasonably fine voice here, occasionally hardening at the top (eg in Befreit) while her long experience in these songs brings satisfying rewards IMO.

P.S. I forgot to mention Elisabeth Grümmer (with Richard Kraus/BerlinSO) in VLL, recorded when she was 60 but conveying these songs with real meaning. As someone has written in the YT comments, ‘Far better than many other so-called “legendary” or “reference” versions. Absolutely splendid, and this is precisely what Richard Strauss had in mind. A long over-arching soprano voice, lyrical and yet flexible, radiant and “klingend”... the quintessential quality was brilliance and control over breath, which here is tested to its maximum. What a singer! And very well conducted...’.
https://youtu.be/5DM2BBfD4lU

Thanks for that considered and thoughtful response. :)

The Janowitz VLL was the first one I heard (and I still have it somewhere). I recall not being overwhelmed by the work, a I was when I heard Norman do it. It may come down to personal preference, but I want to hear a stronger voice in this repertoire and though JN may not entirely escape the charge of overdoing it, at least I don’t have to worry about her being knocked over by the orchestra.

The other thing that gets me about GL is her vibrato - it is extremely wide and pronounced, yet critics rarely (if ever) take her to task for it. She makes some truly curdling sounds on the aforementioned Ariadne.

[mikealdren]

It's amazing how the VLL continue to divide opinion. They seem to be works which we all love, have strong preferences and have heard many of the existing recordings; I certainly have a clear idea in my head of my ideal performance. The Norman version was the first CD I ever bought and I never liked, not least because I was disappointed in the sound after all the hype about CDs. I listened again after a recent upgrade to my (high quality) system and it was all much better than I remembered although still not my ideal - her voice is a 'bit big' and the tempi don't all work for me.

I guess the problem is that it is such highly charged music that has to trigger the right emotional response and we all feel that differently.