Peter Anders in wartime Berlin.
John Austin | Kangaroo Ground, Australia | 05/31/2008
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I have tried to hear as much as possible of the Peter Anders discography, having been excited many years ago by the wonderful fluency and richness of timbre to be heard in his Telefuncun recordings of the 1930s.
Many have welcomed the issuing of the lieder recordings prepared for W W 2 broadcasts from Berlin with the eminent accompanist Michael Raucheisen. Anders' widow, the daughter of his singing teacher, recalls the time they devoted to studying lieder when bombing raids made regular performances of opera impossible during the early 1940s.
It may be due to the differing recording techniques, but I have always found the singing in these wartime broadcasts aurally and interpretatively disappointing. Tempos are generally slow, the voice sounds tired, and there doesn't seem to be a great communicator at work.
In one Schumann duet he is joined by Tiana Lemnitz, and the lustre of her voice is also missing here. Ah well, recording conditions - not to mention living conditions - must have been dire in those days!
"