Jonas Kaufmann And Helmut Deutsch - Selige Stunde Romantic Songs (2020) 320kbps

Tenor Jonas Kaufmann and pianist Helmut Deutsch recorded this album in April of 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in Germany; studios were closed, and the recording location is specified only as Munich. It lies somewhere between a full-fledged new Kaufmann release, always something to be celebrated, and the relaxed home recordings some artists have released during the pandemic. One would think that the sound might have suffered, but instead, it benefits. Where a studio recording might have fussily concerned itself with trying to mute the rough edges creeping into Kaufmann's voice in his early 50s, here, he delivers a relaxed recital in confines that may well have resembled those for which most of these songs were intended. The results are all to the good. Kaufmann and Deutsch offer a collection of songs that combine hits like Schubert's Wandrers Nachtlied II, D. 768, with the likes of Still wie die Nacht of Carl Bohm (not Karl Böhm), an attractive essay in the Schubert style occasionally brought out by Fritz Wunderlich. The program is roughly in an arc shape moving forward from Schubert to the late 19th century and then back again, overshooting effectively to Mozart. The booklet is in the format of a conversation between Kaufmann and Deutsch, and the package overall does a remarkable job of inviting the listener into a connoisseur's evening of song as one might have been presented a century and a quarter ago. In its way, an ideal response to the pandemic.