Richard Tauber - Die Lorelei (Silcher)

with Percy Kahn (piano). EMI master CE 9758-1, rec. London, April 20 1939. I don’t think I have to introduce Tauber to anyone. It is more or less undisputed that he was one of the greatest lyric tenors of his century, although in Germany some still see him as some kind of hyped-up operetta singer - a result of the massive hateful 1930s propaganda, maybe? Anyway, I like his restrained interpretation of this often abused song very much - recorded by Tauber in London while in his native country the poet Heinrich Heine was written out of histories of literature. Mediocre singers do everything they are able to in a song - great singers do nothing that is not necessary. So this here is a prime example for what Gerald Moore called the KISS-rule: “Keep it simple, stupid!“. Tauber’s pianist Percy Kahn (1880-1966), by the way, was not only a sensitive and reliable partner to the singers he accompanied, he also was a composer some of whose works deserved to be resurrected. His “Ave Maria“