CD PHILIPPE JAROUSSKY – SCHUBERT songs; Erato
Countertenors and lieder singing, that’s a thing. Alois Mühlbacher was anything but able to convince me with his attempts to gain new facets from songs by Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler (Ars Production) with his special voice.
The French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky has delighted us for decades now with his musicality, especially his interpretations of cantatas and operas from the 18th century, hence his stylish ornamental singing and a delicately floating high register. He has often broken out of the baroque fixation in which countertenors are placed.
In 2014, he tackled the French art song of the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the album “Green – Mélodies francaises sur des Poèmes de Verlaine”. Also the songwriting of one Franz Schubert is neither new to him nor to his audience. With the guitarist Thibaud Garcia he recorded his “Erlkönig” (“Philippe Jaroussky & Thibaud Garcia – A sa guitare” album).
Philippe Jaroussky met the pianist as early as February 2020 Jérôme Ducros 19 Schubert songs recorded, which are now being released on his main label Erato. Jaroussky: “Schubert’s music has always accompanied my musical life – as a violinist, pianist and finally as a singer. This album is a declaration of love to his genius, but also to the German language, to which I feel connected. I am delighted that it brings me together for the third time with Jérôme Ducros, in a selection of songs that we have put together with great care for you!”
Despite my confirmed reservations about vocal colors, volume, ability to expand and the capacity for dynamic differentiation for a romantic repertoire that penetrates into the (un)depths of the human soul and thus often draws from extreme states that want to be expressed, Jaroussky is remarkable succeeded. He has cleverly put together a program with his pianist Ducros in which the singer uses his vocal strengths, as there are melancholic legato bows, ethereal piani (“Litany on the feast of all souls”, D 343, “Du bist die Ruh”, D 776, “Des Fischers Liebesglück” D 933) or lyrical tenderness (“Die Forelle” D 882, “Nachtstück”, D 672) score points. He can also phrase meaningfully and extemporise poetically and elegantly.
However, more moving numbers such as the “Lied der Mignon”, D 877/4 or “Der Musensohn” D 764 lack drama, narrative density and a fleshy (mezzo) forte with which famous mezzo-soprano or baritone voices in particular can forcefully transport their listeners assets. Especially in songs like “First Loss”, D 226 or “Im Abendrot”, D 799, monotony sets in, no matter how artfully and audibly committed Jaroussky shapes the melodic arcs. On the overall plus side is a good command of the German language, although the articulation (consonants) is not always sufficiently crisp.
Conclusion: The excursion of a great French singer into German song. In addition to the usual wonderfully broadly formed legato phrases and delicate lyrical contemplation, there is a lack of striking diction, dynamic contrasts and, above all, vocal colors and accents. For Jaroussky fans without any ifs and buts.
Dr. Ingobert Waltenberger
