Hearts Delight - The Songs Of Richard Tauber Piotr Beczala; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & Lukasz Borowicz

• 1 You Are My Heart's Delight 03:27
• 2 Wien, du Stadt meiner Träume 04:28
• 3 Lippen schweigen 03:20
• 4 Komm Zigany 05:38
• 5 Girls Were Made To Love And Kiss 03:17
• 6 Wenn es Abend wird - Grüß mir mein Wien 05:35
• 7 Du bist die Welt für mich 03:59
• 8 Das Lied ist aus 04:04
• 9 Freunde, das Leben ist lebenswert 03:18
• 10 O mia bella Napoli 04:58
• 11 Ob blond, ob braun, ich liebe alle Frau'n 02:52
• 12 Ich küsse Ihre Hand Madam 02:33
• 13 Overhead The Moon Is Beaming 03:33
• 14 Ich liebe Dich 04:40
• 15 Still wie die Nacht - Arranged By Paul Bateman 02:50
• 16 Dein ist mein ganzes Herz 03:24
• 17 Brunetki, blondynki 01:32
• Total Runtime 01:03:28

Info for Hearts Delight - The Songs Of Richard Tauber

Franz Lehár's operetta The Land of Smiles provided Richard Tauber with the greatest hit of his entire career: «You are my heart's delight». He sang this number thousands of times and in many different languages. Once, when asked in an interview whether he wasn't tired of performing it so often, he replied: «But you look in the mirror every day, too.» Born in the Austrian city of Linz in 1891, Tauber was a gifted bel canto tenor who consciously broke down the barriers between light music and its more serious classical counterpart, captivating audiences all over the world in a way practically unique among 20th-century tenors. Even today, 65 years after his death, he continues to enjoy an enthusiastic following, thanks to his historic recordings and films, as well as his own compositions.

The internationally acclaimed Polish tenor Piotr Beczala is fascinated by the fact that major operetta composers wrote for Tauber and has chosen works closely associated with his legendary predecessor for his Deutsche Grammophon album debut: «When a composer writes a song or an oratorio today, he generally doesn't think of the person who will sing it. In those days, however, composers wrote for particular singers – Lehár and Stolz, for example, wrote specifically for Tauber and his vocal register. In Lehár's compositions, in particular, Tauber's personal style can be clearly identified.» Written with Tauber's voice in mind, these songs were all hit numbers at the time: audiences needed only to hear the first bar or so to know it was a Tauber song. Tauber was idolized and a part of popular culture, his songs were sung and whistled everywhere, and his effect on women was the subject of hit tunes such as Willy Rosen's «If I were Richard Tauber».

Among the many pieces closely associated with him, it is by no means easy to single out just one as the classic Tauber song. As Beczala explains, «I could choose 'You are my heart's delight', 'I love you' or 'Girls were made to love and kiss', but they are all wonderful! It was an agonizing choice, because all the Tauber songs exude a charm that no longer exists today.» This is a repertoire that Beczala is keen to revive in his concerts, and Tauber's old recordings are a godsend for him: «Whenever I hear Tauber, there is so much that I, as a singer, can learn. I am very fortunate to be able to build on his abilities. It would be presumptuous to think that after such a long period of time we could reinvent the musical wheel.» But Beczala sings not only the famous Tauber songs from Lehár's operettas, he also performs songs by Robert Stolz. As the Polish tenor says, any tribute to the legendary Tauber is bound to include other obligatory songs: «Stolz's wonderfully melancholic number 'The song is over', for example, was one of Tauber's favourites.»

The compositions featured in this album all mark different stages in Tauber's career. «I kiss your hand, Madame» was a song that Tauber sang in the otherwise silent film of the same name starring Marlene Dietrich, while «Vienna, Vienna, you alone» provided the German title – Wien, Wien, nur du allein – for Heart's Desire, his second British feature film. And there's even a unique musical encounter between these two gentlemen-tenors from different centuries, when Piotr Beczala and Richard Tauber come together for Tauber's own song «Du bist die Welt für mich» («You are the world for me»). «There was no question I'd sing a duet with Tauber», Beczala explains, «but it was my own particular wish that it should be this song. It is a very special way of getting closer to Tauber, who was such a great musician.» And Beczala goes on: «Tauber's 1934 recording provided the lead, the orchestra and I allowed ourselves to be guided by his tempo and by his ornaments. After all, he wrote it, so he was entitled to do with it whatever a singer can. It was a great experience to sing with Richard, who was always present in spirit at the sessions.»

In making these recordings, Piotr Beczala even used microphones dating from Tauber's day. «Since we recorded these numbers in the same studios in London where Tauber made his recordings, it's possible that we used the same microphones as Richard», says Beczala with a grin. «It wasn't a question of reconstructing the sound quality of the period – to do that, we would have had to use all the technical equipment of the time. No, we merely wanted to get closer to Richard by using the old mikes.»

In addition to these evergreen Tauber classics, Piotr Beczala also sings «Ob blond, ob braun» («Blonde or brunette») and «Ein Lied geht um die Welt» («A song goes round the world») as tributes to two of Tauber's friends, the tenors Jan Kiepura and Joseph Schmidt. All three singers were driven from their former lives and careers by the Nazis. Tauber himself spent World War II in exile in England, surviving the war by only a few years: he died in London on 8 January 1948 at the age of only 56. At a memorial concert held in his honour shortly afterwards in the Royal Albert Hall, the London Philharmonic Orchestra ended by playing «You are my heart's delight», the number that traditionally ended Tauber's concerts. The 8,000 audience members joined in, singing Tauber's most famous song and bidding their favourite tenor a final, never-ending farewell.

Piotr Beczala, Tenor
Anna Netrebko, soprano
Daniela Fally, vocals
Avi Avital, mandoline
Berlin Comedian Harmonists
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Lukasz Borowicz, conductor

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Booklet for Hearts Delight - The Songs Of Richard Tauber