Karl-Friedrich Dürr News
German opera singer
- bass-baritone
- Germany
- opera singer
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2024-04-25
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Norman Lebrecht - Slipped disc
2018-01-10 11:17:17
A leading Schubertian has died
The musicologist Walther Dürr, one of the founders of the Neue Schubert Ausgabe in Tübingen and a luminary of many Schubertiads at Hohenems, died on January 6. He was 86.
2012-01-23 23:10:00
Gardiner BACH Cantatas Vol. 27
[…] give an object lesson in the use of accents and dynamics to move the music forward with grace and purpose. The rhythms are lifted quite marvellously but it all sounds very natural. Lisa Larsson and Nathalie Stutzmann blend their voices delightfully but the eager, smiling tone of Miss Larsson ravishes the ear particularly. The text speaks of Christ’s ‘glückselige Herde’ (“happy flock”) and here the performers make what Alfred Dürr as described as a shepherd’s dance leap off the page. Later in the cantata comes a tenor aria with violin obbligato. Dürr says that this “forms rather a colourless impression” but that’s not how it comes across on this occasion. Genz, Gardiner and the violinist (Kati Debretzeni?) imbue the music with a light, airy feel. The cantata ends not with a chorale – that forms the penultimate movement – but […]
2012-01-21 14:05:00
Gardiner BACH Cantatas Vol. 25
[…] Christ’s words, is: “In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” One might expect comforting music here but Bach takes a different tack and the music is angular and rather severe in tone. Despite this surprise the mood of the music then alters and the following movement, a tenor aria, is heavenly. ’Ich will leiden, ich will schweigen’ is, in Alfred Dürr’s words, a siciliano of “overwhelming beauty… [that] brings the joyful affirmation that in our suffering we can rely on Jesus’ comfort.” In this number Steve Davislim, with a more grateful vocal line to spin, sounds more at ease than he did in BWV 86 and the performance is a delight. The programme is completed by BWV 97. The occasion for which this cantata was intended is unclear though Dürr […]
2012-01-15 00:15:00
Gardiner BACH Cantatas Vol. 23
[…] interpretation one draws from the music it’s sublime. Stephen Varcoe copes pretty well with the bass aria in this cantata though, again, I’d have liked a bit more “bottom” in the voice, well though he puts across the piece. The final cantata in this concert, BWV 158, is actually for Easter Tuesday but apart from anything else its inclusion is an appropriate link with BWV 67. Actually, as Alfred Dürr points out, Bach also used this cantata sometimes for the Feast of the Purification (February 2) since the text is apposite for that day as well. In essence it’s a cantata for solo bass. The gentle recitativo and the world-weary aria. ‘Welt, ade, ich bin dein müde’ suits Stephen Varcoe’s light-ish voice well. He makes an excellent contribution to this cantata. In the aria, the ravishing, elaborate violin obbligato […]
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