Great Bass Arias
Arnold van Mill; Otto Edelmann
Label
Decca
Catalogue No.
4820200
Barcode
00028948202003
Format
1-CD
About

The Dutchman, Arnold van Mill (1921–1996), never enjoyed the international fame of his German contemporary, Gottlob Frick or the younger Martti Talvela and Nicolai Ghiaurov. Yet at the height of his formidable powers in the 1950s and 60s, he had few rivals for rotund depth and sonority of tone (with what Hope-Wallace called ‘double bass tug’) and versatility in a repertoire that stretched from Mozart’s surly Harem overseer Osmin, via Verdi to Wagner. In this, one of his all-too-rare recital discs, he displays that typical amplitude and generosity of voice and shows how seamlessly he can move from geniality and humour to baleful and black-voiced.

Like Van Mill, Edelmann sealed his international reputation at the 1951 Bayreuth Festival where his Hans Sachs was admired for its robustness and authority, flecked with mischievous humour. Edelmann’s resonant, cleanly focused bass (without woolliness or ‘spread’) lay a tone or so higher than Van Mill’s. His extremely rare 1951 recital disc for Decca, here forms a coupling to Van Mill’s recital for Philips.

TRACK LISTING / ARTISTS

OTTO NICOLAI
Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor: Als Büblein klein an der Mutterbrust

GUSTAV LORTZING
Zar und Zimmermann:
O sancta justitia!
Den hohen Herrscher würdig

Der Wildschütz
Fünftausend Taler!

Der Waffenschmeid
Auch ich war ein Jüngling

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Fidelio
Hat man nicht auch Gold beineben

CARL MARIA VON WEBER (1786–1826)
Der Freischütz
Hier im ird’schen Jammertal
Schweig – damit dich niemand warnt!

PETER CORNELIUS
Der Barbier von Bagdad
O wüssest du, Vererhter – bin Akad
Heil diesem Hause – Salaamaleikum!

Arnold van Mill, bass
Opera Orchestra & Chorus
Robert Wagner

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Fidelio
Ha! Welch ein Augenblick!

RICHARD WAGNER
Tannhäuser
Gar viel und schön

GIUSEPPE VERDI
Falstaff
He! Holla! Wirtschaft!

PETER CORNELIUS
Der Barbier von Bagdad
Salaamaleikum!

Otto Edelmann, bass
Wiener Philharmoniker
Rudolf Moralt

Recording information

Recording Producers: unknown (Van Mill); Victor Olof (Edelmann)
Balance Engineers: unknown (Van Mill); Cyril Windebank (Edelmann)
Recording Locations: Grossersaal, Musikverein, Vienna, Austria, 23 May 1951 (Edelmann); Stadtsaal, Innsbruck, Austria, 1962 (Van Mill)

Reviews

‘fine musical oratory [in the Wagner] … Edelmann sings this quite enchanting music [Cornelius] with a superb legato and I would buy the disc of this aria alone.’ (Edelmann) Gramophone, May 1952

‘one of the most magnificent bass voices I know’ Philip Hope-Wallace in Gramophone, June 1963