#lieder

When I was in college, one of my roomies was a baritone, and I came to have a distinct appreciation for that vocal range. Now, just to be clear, I’m a basso myself, but I also used to sing alto in an Early Music vocal group. There is a clear distinction in my mind between my “full” voice, which doesn’t go very high, and my “falsetto” voice, which can get up there. A real baritone, on the other hand, struggles in that basement register that I handle comfortably, but on a good day a baritone can go sailing up to pitches that I can only reach in my falsetto range. Mind you, there are plenty of baritones who kind of cheat in the upper range, resorting to falsetto, especially if the music is quiet, or else engaging in what to my ear sounds like hollering. (The soprano version I refer to as screaming on pitch.)

A real baritone, to my ear, has a rich dark tone in the lower register, and can soar into the higher range at either full volume or softly, without picking up an unpleasant edge or shifting into falsetto and suddenly sounding like a counter-tenor. For much of the 20th century, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was the baritone standard for a lot of music, especially German lieder. But frankly, his upper register was sometimes problematic for me. (Compare him to a French singer of the same generation, and you’ll hear the difference, in terms of negotiating high notes. French baritones are, admittedly, a breed apart: it’s still difficult to say whether Debussy’s Pelléas, for example, is for baritone or tenor.) More recently, I developed a music crush on Matthias Görne (or Goerne, as it’s often spelled). The first time I heard one of his recordings, I melted at how beautiful his voice was. Alas, while I continue to stand in awe of his musicianship, I find that as he’s gotten older, his voice has developed some of the same issues I found in Fischer-Dieskau’s, and while he’s still a brilliant singer, his instrument no longer thrills me. (I still treasure my recording of Schubert’s Winterreisewith Görne and the inimitable Alfred Brendel.)

I fear I am late arriving to the Christian Gerhaher party, or should I say fan club. I had read the name, and knew he was a successful singer, but I don’t think I ever heard him. You can see in the photo above, he has that Bavarian/Austrian look about him - especially the unruly brown hair that I associate with men of that region (I suspect that’s how Schubert’s hair looked). Listening to him sing Mahler songs is revelatory: he’s the real thing, a baritone who has a warm lower range, but who can get up into those high zones, both loudly and softly, without an obvious shift into falsetto. I suspect, if he had decided to go another route than Classical, he could have been front a rock band, given the combination of warmth and sweetness in his voice. Think Josh Groban as a lieder singer.

During these days of “sheltering at home,” I’ve had time to watch a lot of concerts online, and I am increasingly impressed by the range of Gerhaher’s abilities. So in addition to listening to him sing Mahler with the Berlin Philharmonic (heart-breaking), I’ve also watched him give a highly memorable performance as Wozzeck in an extremely stylized performance from the Zürich Opera, and also as Amfortas in Wagner’s Parsifal (how I spent Good Friday). His ability to negotiate such a range of music is really impressive, but I think I treasure his voice most in those gentle lieder that are so crucial to baritones. His Schubert is remarkable. And while he’s begun to look a bit older and less wild, I am delighted to have discovered him at last. I hope he never gets that hair completely under control.