Max Lorenz sings Tristan - "O sink hernieder" - Part II -

[hiyadroogs]

@unethicaldenier Melchior had the most freely produced voice with a clarion ring no other heldentenor has come close to matching. As good as Max unquestionable was, he sounds laboured compared to Melchior. Listen to both men's recording of Nothung! Nothung! & hear whose voice rings the more freely. Melchior would start some Wagner roles feeling tired (because of too much partying) & 5 hours of singing later would be completely fresh & able to sing the role all over again. That's technique!

[vstasov]

What a beautiful voice - and so exuberant and vivid.

[maxlorenz24]

@vstasov I agree, as He was inebriate with the emotions the character is suffering from...and aslo inebriate with his own voice...

[jkircher314]

@maxlorenz24 I can't stop listening to Lorenz. The videos you've uploaded are stupendous. And his performance in the live Ariadne auf Naxos, performed for R. Strauss's 80th birthday, conducted by Böhm, is also stunning. He may be the greatest Bacchus I've ever heard.

[maxlorenz24]

@jkircher314 Thank you. I think we are reaching our goal of keeping a fine singer in the collective memory of mankind.

[Kievest]

Thank you for posting these glorious moments of spectacular beauty,

depth, emotional involvement and stunning imagery. Thank you also

to paulostroff99 for sharing this rare treasure!

[rumpwrestler]

The finest Wagnerian heldentenor EVER!

[maxlorenz24]

@rumpwrestler Very good taste! :-D

[Biogiant22]

For the roles of Siegmund, Siegfried and Lohengrin, Melchior is the number one. As Tristan i think that Lorenz is better, Melchior is too superficial for this role.

[antfreire]

I can only find one fault on him. ....he was always shadowed by Melchior. Had he been born in 1921 instead on 1901 he would have been a super star.

[paulostroff99]

@antfreire That was not a fault,but rather an accident of birth,. He was still a superstar.

[paulostroff99]

@antfreire -He was nevertheless a superstar.

[isabelle070209]

Je me préfère à Melchior. Lorenz ne chantait pas tout sur le même ton lui.

[antfreire]

Operstud82 you watch too many holocaust movies.

[PnoyzProduckshunz]

UMmm bye!! :D

18.F here CG

[AulicExclusiva]

Lorenz was born in 1901 and it is hardly his fault that he had to live in the nastiest period in German history. German artists had two choices: either comply with the régime, or become refugees. Or worse.

He was also gay and lived in terror of discovery: it would have meant a concentration camp.

[AulicExclusiva]

Lorenz was a star of the Berlin Staatsoper from 1929 and had been heard and acclaimed at the Metropolitan and Covent Garden before he became "Hitler's favourite tenor", whatever that soundbite may mean.

He was also heard in Bayreuth in the 50s and was popular singer until c. 1960. Of couse, some will always measure him according to propaganda, not their ears.

[negzago]

However as far as Tannhauser is concerned I will always preferably go back to the denazified Bayreuth 1954 recording with Brouwenstijn because the changes in politics can clearly be felt even through the way the music is interpreted. I'll always prefer the aged Schorr to Bockelmann, Lehmann to Reining in this respect if you see what I mean.

[negzago]

However much I love this singer I cannot shake off the uneasiness that the knowledge of the fact that he was Hitler's favourite tenor creates in me. The German Wagner recordings from WWII have this sheer intensity that slightly feels unwholesome to me. Take Reining for exmaple, the Tannhauser bits you posted which I discovered ten years ago show us an unsurpassed Elizabeth in my opinion.

[operastud82]

It was a much more complicated scenario than just being Hitler's favorite singer. Lorenz was homosexual and was married to a Jew...he was going to be put to death and it was Wagner's daughter, running the Bayreuth festival at the time, who told Hitler's administration that if they disposed of Lorenz, she would shut down the festival for good. As a result, Lorenz was spared, his wife was killed, and he lived and continued life as a great artist. Naxos has just released a new documentary.

[mgigena760]

Didn't his wife die in the sixties, after he had retired?

[31micho]

indeed she did

[discovolante21]

His wife was saved by Göring, she wasn't killed.

[maxlorenz24]

While I agree with you in some aspects, I wouldn't say the voice is ever ugly...he is not gentle here, singing in brute force, with frequent excesses and singing the wrong note, as he uses to, to make an accent...I think this is not an opera for an "academy" singer. This is a Myth and as such the characters are playing with fierce intensity in a way that, when I listen to other interpretations I found that they are lacking in emotion. I have several Tristans and I always come back to this one.

[negzago]

I agree with you on his being more human than Melchior, but isn't that another way of saying that nature indeed was not as generous with him as she was with Melchior? Lorenz had to do with less voice, less technique I should say. He also is undoubtedly very often out of tune. On the whole his Tristan does not dethrone Melchior the way his Tannhauser does. That same part with Flagstad/Leider and Melchior sounds definitely better, but I definitely understand and respect your bias.

[maxlorenz24]

The problem I have with Melchior is that he has a "rigid" approach to all his characters: same vibrato; same accents; same "pushing"; no "nuances". All the performances sound similar to each other. That is kind of tiring...I have a very early Siegfried that is extreme in that regard, but the youthful voice is welcome.

[mariusfelix]

Did you see the Doku here on youtube and what Dieskau and Kollo say about him? It does so good, if one has to read stupid comments like the ones of 8032gesang.

[maxlorenz24]

I-m afraid not. Link please.

[maxlorenz24]

THANKS!

Now I need a translator...

I imagine this video can be bought...any hint?

[marcmo2004]

I did not know about Max Lorenz, excellent, thanks :)

It feel that the comparison with Melchior, is a bit like Wunderlich and Bjorling on one side and Pavarotti and Gedda on the other side. For the first, the voice is exceptional, for the second, the expression is exceptional.

[maxlorenz24]

It is all about personal tastes. I will always prefer an artist that, apart from mastering the technique, is able to let flow his human spirit and permeate with it his music.

For example, I could listen all day long to Gedda, but I cannot tolerate two phrases from Pavarotti.

Listening to Von Karajan chills my heart, but Furtwangler would invariably bring joyful tears to my eyes...

[rumpwrestler]

@maxlorenz24 Furtwangler RULES!

[8032gesang]

Sometimes his voice is too ugly, seems a little strange, no sense for a piano without

his "metal"-sound. Seems outside the role,

insentive. A little inhumane interpretation,

no wonder, that he had his biggest success

in the fascist countries Italy and Germany.

Outside these countries he was ALWAYS second

choice.

[8032gesang]

Die Stimme hat oft einen zu hässlichen Klang,

gerade bei den Pianostellen, es fehlt an Sensibilität: befremdlich.

[mariusfelix]

Wonderful tempi!

[maxlorenz24]

Yes. Robert Heger was a great conductor.

There is a "Tristan" from Teatro Colon of Buneos Aires, from 1938 I think, starring Lorenz, Konetzny and Kleiber, if I recall well. Do you know it?