This splendid Naxos Historical series issue is especially welcome since it focuses on Richard Tauber’s early acoustic lieder recordings, including six of Schumann’s Dichterliebe songs. Throughout this generous recital of German Odeons made between 1919 and 1926, we hear a focused lyric tenor with a luscious midrange. There’s a tinge of sadness in his timbre that, allied to his interpretive emotional openness, makes every selection a delight. In all but five of the 27 tracks he’s accompanied by a piano, pokey and student-like in the opening Schubert Der Lindenbaum, more full and present in the later songs. The anonymous orchestral backing is a dispensable period artifact that can be tuned out as you concentrate on Tauber’s artistry. Of that there’s plenty, with the kind of legato and lovingly floated phrases most singers would die for.
We can hear those characteristic Tauber touches in Der Lindenbaum and in Grieg’s Am schönsten Sommerabend and Ein Traum, among many others, where his head voice is sparingly used, but to irresistible effect. In Schumann’s Aus meinen Tränen spriessen Tauber creates a captivating mood of intimacy, partly through his use of the “speaking voice” in which song and speech meld together, a kind of vocalism virtually absent from singers of the past half-century. His diction is impeccable–if you know German you don’t need the texts, which Naxos anyway neglects to supply. Tauber’s sensitivity to words enables him to draw you into the narratives without ever over-emoting or indulging in mannerisms. Grieg’s Die Prinzessin is a case in point, the ballad-singer telling his story with the kind of artful simplicity that enables the listener to follow the tale’s thread while reveling in the beauty of the limpid voice.
A set of seven Strauss songs is gorgeously done, highlighted by a touching Morgen and the ever-present Ständchen. Rarities include a song by Felix Weingartner (demonstrating he was a better conductor than composer) and Karl Beines, whose attractive Ständchen indicates he was as good a composer as he was (to judge from his pupil) a teacher. Ward Marston has wrested good sound from these ancient 78s, though even he couldn’t do anything about some selections where the singer was recorded too far from the horn to register with presence. However, the majority of tracks sound like electric recordings made a decade or so later. The only quibble I have is that while all songs are listed with their original matrix and catalog numbers, recording dates are not given. That of course is hardly enough to keep any sane lieder lover from lusting after this budget bargain.
