Judging from his various CD covers and advertising photos, Matthias Goerne is not much given to smiling, presenting instead a cold and forbidding visage. Ah, but one cannot judge a CD by its booklet, for once in play it reveals a beautifully warm voice singing in a most inviting manner. Goerne’s lighthearted style, combined with his pure lyric baritone, fits Papageno’s character wonderfully. After three Zauberflöte selections come Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni. In both cases Goerne produces beautiful tone but lacks the dramatic involvement of the kind we hear from singers long experienced in these roles (like Nicolai Ghiaurov or Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau). The Tannhäuser arias, including O du mein holder, are better suited to Goerne’s restrained delivery, focusing as he does on beauty of tone rather than living the texts.
A big plus for this collection is the inclusion of non-standard items–selections from Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust, Humperdinck’s Königskinder, and Korngold’s Die tote Stadt, all of which bring greater animation from Goerne. However, Strauss’ Harlenkinlied (from Ariadne auf Naxos), lovely as it is, again makes you miss what you would hear in a stage performance. All of this changes when we come to Wozzeck. Here’s a role that Goerne has performed to great acclaim on stage, and it shows: he’s into this character. He still maintains his beautiful tone (not going for the raw barking anger of Eberhard Waechter), but this somehow makes the character more vulnerable–even as he’s killing Marie, you’re thinking “but he’s such a nice guy.” Goerne gets fine partnership from soprano Dorothea Röschmann in the Figaro and Wozzeck duets, and excellent support from Manfred Honeck’s alert and colorful readings with the Swedish Radio Symphony. So, while not the ultimate German operatic baritone recital, this well-recorded disc offers much pleasure for lovers of beautiful singing.
