Search - Franz [Vienna] Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms :: Leo Slezak Sings Lieder & Arien (Songs & Arias)

Magical recordings by the "other" Tenor of the Century

madamemusico | Cincinnati, Ohio USA | 04/21/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For those of you who wonder if Caruso had a rival, the answer is Yes and his name was Leo Slezak. Born the same year as Caruso (1873), Slezak's voice was even more powerful (so powerful, in fact, that the high notes consistently "blast" the old recording process), even more poetic (he sang EVERYTHING, from Mozart to Wagner), even more well-blended (he could sing piano, pianissimo, forte, fortissimo, sometimes all the the same phrase), and much more musical. This 2-CD set covers the years 1928-29, when Slezak was 55-56 years old, yet both the power and the poetic magic of the voice are still intact. By modern standards, a few of his lieder performances don't work (too much rubato in "Die Post," for instance, slurred figures in "Wohin?" and not enough dramatic bite in "Zueignung"), but when compared to Caruso he is incomparably the greater artist. Particularly wonderful are his versions of "Nacht und Traume," "Die Nussbaum," Schubert's "Serenade" and "An die Musik," and the arias from "La Juive," "Pagliacci" and "Otello." (In fact, Slezak was THE preferred Otello in the years before Zenatello and Melchior: he sang the role under both Gustav Mahler and Arturo Toscanini.) The Wagnerian excerpts are conducted rather slackly, yet to hear Slezak "build" the music during the complete Rome Narrative from "Tannhauser" is to realize how much greater he was, not only than Caruso but of Melchior as well. Just as there was only one Caruso, there was only one Slezak; and if your imagination can fill in the gaps in Caruso's timbre, you can certainly imagine Slezak's rocket-like high notes reverberating in a theatre with the palpable force of an earthquake....on top of which, Slezak caressed words like a poet and sang straight from the heart, without the least pretense or artifice. There was no one else like him in the history of music, and his influence on the following generation of German tenors (Tauber, Wittrisch, Volker, Groh and Roswaenge) was as powerful as Caruso's on the Italians. Highly recommended!"