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What's on the CD 1:
What's on the CD 2:
Review
of: JACQUES URLUS: Heroic Tenor
The Complete Edison Recordings My wife wandered into the studio while I was listening - for the fourth time - To Ein Schwert verhiess mir and said, "What a handsome voice! Who is it?" It is unfortunate indeed that Urlus is so little known but now with the help of Ward Marston we can but admire. This collection is admirably assembled with all the taste we have come to expect from the foremost transfer-artist in the business. In the first place the Edison records are - as Marston says in his annotation - far and away the best things that Urlus did and all thirty-seven sides of the very rare 78-rpm records are captured to perfection in this transfer. Indeed Urlus was the possessor of one of the most handsome voices in the history of singing and it follows as doth the night the day that this set is must buying for anyone even slightly interested in the recordings of tenors in general and "Heroic' tenors in particular. There was of course Melchior and after him … no one. But before him there were a few and of these this Dutch singer stands head and shoulders above the rest. Quite naturally it is the Wagner/Weber selections, which first make the ear's tympanic membrane come to attention. And of these several selections I will go so far as to insist that Ein Schwert verhiess mir is one of the great Wagner recordings. These recordings date from 1913 through 1917 and technically they are amazingly good. Yes, the "orchestra" is ghastly but the voice itself is crystal clear. As I have written before, the male voice reproduced very well indeed by the advent of the flat disc and very little done in the last hundred years has improved that. There is very little 'junk' on these two disks. That in itself is worth noting considering the output of many other singers. Everything is sung in German quite naturally but there are only six selection of non-Germanic extraction. The program notes of Harold Bruder are excellent as is the postlude by Marston. Of course the documentation is highly detailed with selection, composer, recording date and original issue numbers as well as the selection timing. My only slight caveat is that forenames of composers are not evident. Wagner is one thing but those of Jensen, Meyer-Helmund, Abt and Böhm do not come trippingly off the tongue. This is a general fault with such annotations from all the re-issue houses that I'd like to see corrected. Marston remarks in his brief notes that Edison - who had taken a particular interest in the Urlus recordings - wrote to the tenor the following among other things: I hope the next time you will let us have some songs like the Eve Star from Tannhauser which are suitable for tenor. By which he meant O du mein holder Abenstern of course. Edison who had ears of the purest tin was for once right, albeit by accident. The Urlus voice would have encompassed this baritone aria perfectly and in the original key. If you listen to the "Forging Song" from Siegfried sung by both Melchior and Urlus you will hear two entirely different treatments of the same music. The Great Dane hits the notes head on with great precision and accuracy. By contract Urlus voice is much more of the Italian school, romancing the notes with a wide variety of tonal imaging. To a great extent there is no comparison. The Urlus voice is unique in its production of the German school of music then. For instance the Fidelio aria is an infinitely more lyrical presentation than the famous Helge Roswaenge disk. It is a pity that Urlus recorded only the first part of that extended scene. The Freischütz selection too is an interesting contrast to the Roswaenge recording. When Urlus rises to about an F the voice does come perilously close to crooning especially when the dynamic is a mezzo forte or below. However it never quite does and the ear accepts these head-tones. O paradis to which Edison quite rightly called attention: "Splendid - no tremolo. Caruso cannot possible best this." In the Schubert Die Allmacht the tenor not only sings it beautifully but also knows what he's singing … not the same thing as all. His musicianship is also exemplified in the two excerpts from Zauberflöte. To me who have owned just two of the 78s this CD set was a great surprise and a welcome one. Our thanks to Mr. Marston. Excerpt used: Siegfried Schmiedelied - by Urlus and Melchior
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A
Red STAR Recording 
JACQUES
URLUS: Heroic Tenor The
Complete Edison Recordings
