COMPOSERS: Flotow,Korngold,Lortzing,Mozart,Wagner,Weber
LABELS: Sony Classical
ALBUM TITLE: Helden: Klaus Florian Vogt
WORKS: Arias; Weber: Oberon Overture; Wagner: Prelude to Act III of Longerin; Prelude to Act III of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
PERFORMER: Klaus Florian Vogt (tenor); Manuela Uhl (soprano); Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin/Peter Schneider
CATALOGUE NO: 88697988642
This is a ‘live’ showcase recital, though the only time you hear anything from the audience is at the very end, when they cheer wildly. The selection of arias, some familiar and several less so, is intelligent, but having three very familiar orchestral excerpts does seem like padding.
Vogt has an attractive if slender voice, and for him to sing on this album called Heroes seems a bit odd, since he is more suited to tender regrets than to thrilling outbursts of tone. He shows a Lieder singer’s sensitivity to words, and is almost ideally suited to Lohengrin’s narration, perhaps the high-point of his recital. Any more demanding role than that, in terms of volume and stamina, wouldn’t be wise.
In the last item, the most famous melody from Korngold’s Die tote Stadt, he is joined by Manuela Uhl, and together they make a ravishing effect. I would like to have heard more of her, and some of the items in the recital are so brief that it would have been preferable to have included some moderately long duets; there is plenty of room on this disc to accommodate them.
Michael Tanner
