100Singers's video: 100 Singers - GERHARD H SCH

Gerhard Hüsch, Baritone (1901-1984) Franz Schubert: "Ständchen" ("Leise flehen meine Lieder") - Lyrics by Ludwig Rellstab Franz Schubert: "Erlkönig" - Lyrics by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Hans Udo-Müller, Piano My personal opinion: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf has stated her belief that nothing is more difficult to sing than operetta and Schubert Lieder. In his book on Schubert songs, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau explained: "Nothing was unspoken between the notes written by him and what he had in mind. His style was natural, and a natural composer is a wonder in the world of music." Schubert songs have an extraordinary intensity, yet they seem to be composed easily. Many of them appear to us like folk songs. What sort of singer does it need, to bring Schubert Lieder back to life again in an honorable way? Fischer-Dieskau read Schubert with intellect and sophistication. Heinrich Schlusnus did the opposite in the refusing of skillful refinements. Rather, his interpretations were characterized by the expression of a simple human being. Hector Berlioz used to say that music was not made for singers, singers were made for music. The work of a composer should always stand in the foreground and not the interpreter. The singer is only the agent of music, the servant ... More than two decades before Fischer-Dieskau, the German baritone Gerhard Hüsch became a pioneering music servant in singing the Schubert songs on a large scale. Even if he was not the first who recorded DIE SCHÖNE MÜLLERIN and WINTERREISE (as is sometimes said), he was one of the first who devoted himself with seriousness to Lieder of Schubert and other notable composers like Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms and Pfitzner. In the course of his career, Gerhard Hüsch moved more and more from the opera house to the concert hall. I would like to quote again J. B. Steane: "We go to Hüsch's Lieder records for two reasons. One is, that when charm and grace is wanted, he is simply perfect. The other is, Hüsch is always an extremely good singer. In the even production of fine tone and in the negotiating of technical difficulties he can give lessons to the most." Hüsch's voice was a lyric baritone with a velvet texture - warm in tone and concise in articulation. 'London Opera Society' founder Michael Scott said, that Hüsch's recordings of MÜLLERIN, WINTERREISE and Schumann's DICHTERLIEBE are unsurpassed. It's a benevolent assessment I can't share. Admittedly, Hüsch's voice was sonorous and masculine in sound, but this is precisely the point where I would like to raise an objection. For my taste, Hüsch sounded too mature to embody in a credible way a young man. His timbre sometimes reminds me of a friendly grandpa, sitting in an armchair and telling fairy tales to his grandchildren. Hard to believe, he was only thirty-five when he recorded MÜLLERIN. Hüsch's singing was surrounded by a touch of old-fashioned conservatism ... A special attention should be given to Schubert's "Erlkönig" after Goethe's 1782 ballad. You might have noticed that the song calls for five different voices - and not only four, as is often assumed. Firstly there is the narrator within the ballad, then we have the father, his son and, of course, the spooky Erlking. And finally, for the very last sentence, there is another narrator who speaks the closing remark "In seinen Armen das Kind war tot." This fifth voice, largely unnoticed, is the reason why the last phrase is written in past tense while the whole ballad is told in present form. There is hardly to find an interpretation that takes this into account. In fact, Fischer-Dieskau's 1958 recording with Gerald Moore is an audible exception. Obviously he had realized, this last phrase is an additional appendix, spoken by a second narrator outside the storyline. Gerhard Hüsch did not consider it. He formed the words with regard to tonal beauty - but hardly he brought to light the ambiguity of the final punch line. Gerhard Hüsch in opera on records is a marginal chapter. He participated in only four complete recordings. The best and best-known is certainly DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1937/1938. Hüsch's Papageno (unfortunately without dialogs) is an exemplary classic, and surely the inspiration for many of his successors, including Hermann Prey. It is almost impossible, to sing this amiable part with more kindness than Hüsch. Here we have the perfect assimilation of a singer with his role. Hüsch's Papageno is genuine. I suspect, Mozart would have enjoyed him very much ...