CD Reviews: Verdi "Canzoni"

VERDI: "Canzoni"

Damrau; C. A. Gutiérrez, P. A. Edelmann; Haider, piano. Texts and
translations. Telos 1005

Verdi and Mozart are by any reckoning two of the greatest of opera composers. Neither could be placed among the supreme masters of the song. Mozart contributed some charming encores to the literature, plus one unsettling masterpiece, "Abendempfindung." As for Verdi:  well, every once in a while it's interesting to hear his lyric output.

Admittedly, much of this is largely early work -- save for 1867's stand-alone "Stornello." But frankly, Rossini and Bellini -- to say nothing of such non-Italian masters of both genres as Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss and Britten -- outperformed him as composers of song. Telos offers seventeen Verdi songs (fifty-five minutes worth of music), a reasonable selection among the two dozen he composed.

These rather slight pieces gain from the kind of idiomatic mastery such artists as Albanese, Scotto and Bergonzi have granted them. Here we have a German soprano, a Colombian tenor and an Austrian baritone voicing the songs, and the results are not greatly compelling. Nor would one look necessarily to the pianism of Friedrich Haider, frequent conductor for his wife Edita Gruberová, for consummate Italian style; his work is highly competent but doesn't fully animate the songs.

Diana Damrau gets top billing and by far the biggest cover photo. (The album looks like it's largely Damrau's show.) Actually, she sings the first five songs. Her intelligence and spirit are clear, and she successfully varies the mood (the melancholy "Perduto ho la pace" works best for her), but she can't vary her rather cool tonal quality, and -- as in her Met Rosina and Gilda -- the rather antiseptic cast of her lower middle voice sounds anything but Italianate. The effect here is about as idiomatic as, say, Richard Strauss lieder sung by a fine Mediterranean artist such as Patrizia Ciofi. Colombian tenor César Augusto Gutiérrez sports a more naturally Latinate timbre, but not a particularly distinguished one; he tends to overdrive a rather nasal top register.

The most enjoyable vocalism comes from Paul Armin Edelmann, a traditional light Kavalierbariton who balances opera, operetta and recital work. The son of Otto Edelmann, this youngish baritone has been heard in San Diego (Falke and Papageno) and in some smaller New York venues. In terms of Verdi's opera roles, he'd fit the likes of Silvano or Montano; the most "operatic" of his selections here, the scena-like "L'esule," overstretches him. But Edelmann is an expressive song singer, with fine legato and clear diction; his six selections here are the ones I'll revisit.

Steven Singer, the valiant translator, manages to wrestle to a draw the ultra-Teutonic digressive prose of Dr. Eckhardt van den Hoogen's booklet essay.

DAVID SHENGOLD / Opera News Online

...The songs are condensed operatic arias, or in case of "L'esulé", a more extended scena. Paul Armin Edelmann´s performance of it is this disc's vocal high point.

Edelmann performs some of Verdi´s more extended, lachrymose songs, most of which are in slow and moderate tempos. If you accept that his sound and pronunciation is that of an Austrian baritone, his evenly produced tone, good breath control, attractive high register and straightforward manner offer the disc's best singing.

One of his songs, "Poveretto", has such a strong resemblance, in its opening melody and accompaniment figure, to the song "Ach, in Maien war's" from Hugo Wolf´s Spanisches Liederbuch that I suspect Wolf of thievery.

Speaking of Wolf, neglected by major singers on recordings in recent years, Damrau and Edelmann might make an ideal pair for the Italienisches Liederbuch.

Complete recordings of Verdi´s songs are rare. For that reason, I would recommend this to fans of Damrau and for Edelmann´s contribution. -- Paul Orgel / Fanfare Magazine, August 2011