Dear co vocalisters,
finally I found some spare time, so here is the long promised mail about the
masterclass Gundula Janowitz gave at the Schubertiade last year.
One of the reasons, it took me so long, was that I was hesitating what to write
about the participants. Finally I decided not to write anything about them. Not
that they did not deserve that, but who am I to judge them.
The masterclass was scheduled as a Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau masterclass (that
was why I was there), but he had to undergo a small surgery. Janowitz took his
place, in the masterclass I mean. Most of the participants did sing Schubert,
it was the Schubertiad after all.
Although many if not all of the things she said, were well known to me, they
have proven to be important. When hearing them I often thought: well, that kind
of stupid things, I don't do, but later I found out, that I actually did do
them. She would have had many things to say to me, I'm afraid, had I sung
there. I have tried to reproduce her advices as brief as possible, left out
the too obvious ones, and made a list:
1. 'Schubert (Strauss, Mozart, Brahms etc.) was a very good composer. I think
his notes don't have to be altered'. (Meaning: sing what is written, start with
studying a piece exactly, and not with the interpretation)
2. No riterdando in Schubert. (She gave especially the pianists a hard time
with that)
3. Be very exact in your diction, and even more so in words that are not
contemporary, or not often used. (She did not say anything about the vowel
line, but that is one of the things she was very good at, and the participants
as well.)
4. Don't confuse acting with singing Lieder. On the other hand, she gave some
tips on how to cach some attention neverthelss. One example: In 'Die Krähe' she
made the singer look around him as if he actually saw the bird. But this singer
was certainly not someone who suffered from overacting.
5. Don't look up when singing high notes.
6. Always take a note from above, never from below.
7. Always breathe through your nose.
8. 'Singing is: packing, waiting and opening your mouth. Why do you think those
three jokers get so much money: they open their mouth'. This was not only an
advice for high notes, but for all. She also showed some of the participants
that they could sing much more open in this way.
9. Never give more than 75% of what you have (!! See below)
There was a small party for the participants, where I, although I was not a
participant, was invited. On that occasion, I asked her, how she had managed to
have such a long career, singing mostly under the baton of Karajan, where this
conductor had a reputation of a voice destroyer. This was the only time I saw
her getting mad: 'It is the singer who destroys his voice, not the conductor',
she answered. 'It is your own responsibiliy to know how far you can go.'
The next day she came up with the 75% rule, so maybe she has been thinking
about it, I don't know.
Her defense of Karajan seems to have a long tradition. During the party she
also told us, that once, when she was riding in a streetcar in Vienna in the
sixties and people were muttering about Karajan, she defended him with such
vehemence, that the streetcardriver told her to get out: he could not guarantee
for her safety anymore.
Best greetings,
Dré
|
