In this instance I have to agree with Walter, well worthy of being recognised in this thread. What a lady, 97 and still doing the Czerny, long may she continue to inspire and be inspired.
Brian
... that ruined the Art of Lieder singing for me through boring and colourless performances that oozed regularity without individuality. Through him the dullness of the modern baritone voice stifled performances until today with voices lacking brilliance and flexibility.
The same objections were made for E.Schwarzkopf. However I still believe that FD found a deep significance in every word he sung, and this is a gift that only very few musicians have. In other fields, I believe that Lupu is now the only living pianist able to find the meaning of every phrase he plays at the piano.
The fact that both FD and Schwarzkopf could be accused of excessive mannerism is true, and in some ways they had not a typical belcanto technique. But those were very well compensated by their superb taste and musicality.
Caprotti wrote:The same objections were made for E.Schwarzkopf. However I still believe that FD found a deep significance in every word he sung, and this is a gift that only very few musicians have. In other fields, I believe that Lupu is now the only living pianist able to find the meaning of every phrase he plays at the piano.
The fact that both FD and Schwarzkopf could be accused of excessive mannerism is true, and in some ways they had not a typical belcanto technique. But those were very well compensated by their superb taste and musicality.
Very true Caprotti but it does raise the thorny question of what has precedence, music or words, there can be no winner in this argument and it follows that for some the intellectual word approach from Dieskau and Schwarzkopf will appeal to some and the more musical approach from singers such as McCormack and Tauber will appeal to others. If you can like both approaches then that is fine, unfortunately for a period of 30 or 40 years the intellectual approach held the stage and there are no modern-day singers around that I have heard that have successfully shaken off that burden. It must also be said that we are talking exclusively about German Lieder here and not the Russian or French Romances which cannot be sung in an intellectual manner.
Caprotti wrote:But how could you explain the fact that FD, singing Verdi's Rigoletto or Don Carlos, could find not intellectual but truly moving accents ?
Funnily enough I was discussing this with an ex-opera singer just this afternoon. He remembered seeing FD in a Mozart opera in FD's younger days where he delivered his recitative as uninterestedly as he could, dare I say Lieder-style, then when his Italian duet partner started singing he audibly changed his style and delivery during the scene and after a short while was singing the whole opera in the normal "Italian" way, and it was a great performance. I think he realised that opera demands are totally different to that of Lieder, and he had to adapt or not have a career in opera, at least that was the impression my friend had.
