Here’s an excellently curated selection representing VAI’s numerous live releases featuring tenor Jon Vickers. The tenor’s larger-than-life voice and intense communicative gifts transform the Dvorák and Purcell songs into virtual mini-dramas, abetted by Richard Woitach’s pithy, nimble piano accompaniments. The Tristan Love Duet with Birgit Nilsson stems from the tenor’s first performance of a role he virtually owned in the 1970s (see my review by typing Q180 in Search Reviews). His inward, emotionally complex Canio is amply preserved in the Pagliacci excerpts.
By the time of his 1983 Winterreise, Vickers’ tone had become drier and his intonation less reliable in the lower register. Of the three songs excerpted from the cycle, I’m most convinced by the singer’s measured, languid way with Der Lindenbaum and Wasserflut. His outsized dynamics and slightly mannered phrasing in Auf dem Flusse, however, draw attention to the performer rather than the song. A nine-minute segment from his penetrating narration of Strauss’ melodram Enoch Arden, featuring Marc-André Hamelin’s expert piano flourishes (type Q233 in Search Reviews), caps the musical segment of this release. VAI includes a bonus CD with Vickers in conversation with Jon Tolansky, offering fascinating artistic and moral insights into his key roles. In all, an apt tribute to Vickers’ artistry in his 75th birthday year. [4/17/2002]
