Richard Tauber tenor
Harold Holt International Celebrity Concert
Further Scottish dates to be confirmed.
Richard Tauber was a highly successful operatic tenor, particularly associated with Mozart. He also created several roles in Viennese operetta, especially works by Lehár. Having settled in London before the war, he rejoined his former colleagues of the Vienna State Opera when that company visited Covent Garden in 1947. Tauber caused astonishment with his immaculate breath control as Don Ottavio, singing with just one lung due to the cancer that killed him a few months later.
Richard Tauber tenor
Simon Barer solo pianist
Percy Kahn accompanist
Programme included:
Schubert: Der Doppelgänger; Ständchen; Heidenröslein (encore).
Liszt: Twelfth Rhapsody
Blumenfeld: Study for Left Hand
Liszt: Gnomenreigen (encore)
Strauss: Heimliches Aufforderung; Twilight Dream.
Grieg: Letzter Frühling; A Dream.
Schumann: Die beiden Grenadieren (encore).
Percy Kahn: Tears of Joy (encore).
Chopin: Nocturne in D flat; Scherzo in C sharp minor.
Liszt: Liebestraum (encore).
Lehár: Comes and Goes; Always Smiling (Land of Smiles); Oh Maiden, My Maiden (Friederike).
Lehár: You Are My Heart's Delight (Land of Smiles - encore).
Schubert: Impatience (encore).
Advance Details - High Anticipation
Dundee Courier & Advertiser: Saturday, 26 October 1935
Tauber Concert Postponed - Chill Interferes with Caird Hall Engagement
'Following the news of the indisposition of Richard Tauber, information was received in Dundee yesterday that the famous tenor's concert in the Caird Hall on Monday has had to be postponed.
'Herr Tauber contracted a chill which affected the vocal cords and has developed into laryngitis. The result was that he has received doctor's orders to rest from his engagements and recuperate for a week.
'Mr Harold Holt, the concert promoter, regrets the inconvenience caused to patrons and hopes to arrange another date for the concert in November or December. Tickets already purchased will be available for the postponed concert.'
Dundee Courier & Advertiser: Thursday, 28 November 1935
Tauber's Concert in Caird Hall - Famous Tenor Coming on Monday
'The postponed visit to Dundee of Richard Tauber, the famous tenor, will take place on Monday, when he will sing in the Caird Hall at one of the Celebrity series of concerts.
'Tauber was to have opened the series on October 28, but his appearance had to be postponed because of his indisposition at that time.
'Immensely popular on the stage, screen, radio and gramophone, Tauber should prove a great draw on his first visit to the city. He has made a great name in the successes of Lehár, but he is also a great lieder singer.
'Tauber's fiancée, Diana Napier, the British film star, is going round the country with him, showing him round the cities with which she is familiar, since, as a very young girl, she was a touring actress.
'Tauber has never been in better voice than now. His cheery, genial personality, his obvious enjoyment in singing, and his beautiful voice makes him one of the outstanding musical figures of the day.
'He will wear his famous monocle - nobody has ever seen him without it. And he is lavish with encores. There is little doubt that he will include in his programme ''You are my heart's delight,'' from Lehár's The Land of Smiles, in which he first appeared in this country at Drury Lane, London. Tauber has sung this song over 5000 times.
'The other artiste on Monday will be Simon Barer, one of the greatest pianists of the day. Barer is a Russian.
Dundee Courier & Advertiser: Monday, 2 December 1935
Tauber Promises Encores - ''You are my heart's delight''
'Richard Tauber, the tenor, will sing ''You are my heart's delight'' in the Caird Hall, Dundee to-night, and will add one more performance to the thousanfs of times he has sung it. Herr Tauber calls it his ''hymn,'' while others call it his signature tune.
'The famous Austrian singer spoke to a Courier & Advertiser reporter over the telephone last night from the Glasgow hotel where he has been staying the week-end. Herr Tauber said he was looking forward to his Dundee visit. Asked whether he would sing ''You are my heart's delight,'' Tauber said he would, and as many more encores as the public liked.
'The first part of his programme will consist of Schubert, Grieg, and Strauss songs. The second part will include well-known songs from the Lehár operettas. He will also probably sing a number of songs from his Blossom Time film.
'Tauber will motor from Glasgow to the Royal British Hotel, Dundee, this forenoon. He is bringing with him his fiancée, Miss Diana Napier, the film actress.
'Tauber said that on Saturday he and his fiancée made a tour of the Queen Mary. ''We have chosen our suite for a trip to America next year,'' he said. The trip will probably be a honeymoon journey.
'Miss Napier expressed her intention of doing some shopping in Dundee to-day. She said she was to buy some woollen jumpers.'
The Actual Concert
Dundee Courier & Advertiser: Tuesday, 3 December 1935
Tauber Charms in Caird Hall - Melodies by Schubert and Lehár
Remarkable scenes of enthusiasm marked the close of the International Celebrity Concert in the Caird Hall, Dundee, last night. The visit of Richard Tauber had been looked forward to with great expectation. The large audience was not disappointed.
Tauber is a great artiste and a great personality. He leaves one with the impression that he sings for the sheer joy of singing, and his enthusiasm speedily radiates to the audience. Before he finally took farewell of his audience he had sung no fewer than seventeen songs, seven of which were encores, and then there was a crowd of all ages, armed with autograph books, waiting for his signature.
'His artistry is as amazing for its range as it is for its impeccable intuition. He not only gets right into the spirit of the song, but enforces its meaning by the great command of tone colour he possesses. Not a word does he sing that does not seem to have been carefully weighed up for its most effective interpretation individually and as a factor in the artistic scheme.
'His voice is of beautiful quality and he seems to be able to get just the pitch, power, and colour that he wants without the slightest effort. He jumps from a sforzando to the most delicate pianissimo without the hint of a break And what pianissimo! The merest whisper, yet round and full in tone, ans audible right to the back of the hall. Nothing is more entrancing than his endings. They just melt away into space.
'Last night he drew upon Schubert, Grieg, Strauss and Lehár for his three groups of songs. And of the three perhaps the most enjoyable was his Schubert. Undoubtedly his finest piece of artistry was his rendering of ''Der Doppelganger'' - probably Schubert's greatest creation in song. In Tauber's interpretation of Schubert's realistic setting nothing was lost of the grim pathos of Heine's poem. In marked contrast was the exquisite tenderness infused into the popular Serenade.
'For an encore Tauber sang Schubert's ''Red Rose'' in English, to the delight of the audience. At the same time one could not help feeling that, good as his English now is, his interpretation loses much when he departs from the German text. There is not the fine discrimination of word treatment that is such a striking feature of his singing in German.
'His fine sense of the dramatic was again displayed in Strauss's ''Heimliches Aufforderung,' which was bracketed with the same composer's ''Twilight Dream'' and Grieg's ''Letzter Frühling'' and ''A Dream.'' For encores to this group he included Schumann's ''Two Grenadiers'' and a setting of Heine's ''Tears of Joy'' by Mr Percy Kahn (the accompanist of the evening) that did not in any way suffer by comparison in respect of the company it was in.
'For the second part of his programme Tauber devoted himself to his film and musical comedy favourites. He charmed the audience in Lehár's ''Comes and Goes,'' by breaking from German into English in the last verse, and repeated the experiment in ''Always Smiling,'' from The Land of Smiles, and ''Oh Maiden, my Maiden,'' from Frederika. Here again his musicianship is such that even light comedy becomes high art.
'It was only after he had sung us his third encore, to the huge delight of the audience, ''You are my heart's delight,'' and, with a charmingly naive request to the audience in the body of the hall to be excused, Schubert's ''Impatience'' to the crowded organ gallery, that he was allowed to retire.
'The programme and the honours of the evening were fully shared by Mr Barer, the Russian pianist. Mr Barer is a stranger to these parts, but fter his appearance last night he is assured of a warm welcome whenever he cares to come back to Dundee.
'His performance of Liszt's Twelfth Rhapsody fairly carried the audience ''off its feet,'' and he backed that up by a study of amazing dexterity and difficulty for the left hand by Blumenfeld, and Liszt's lively ''Gnomenreigen'' as a double encore.
'His other solo comprised Chopin's Nocturne in D Flat and the C Sharp Minor Scherzo, and Liszt's ''Liebestraum.'' The popular Nocturne with its ingratiating melodies and delicate filigree work, and the seductive ''Liebestraum'' were models of elegance and grace. The interpretation of the Scherzo was imbued with an intensely poetic atmosphere, while despite the brilliance and glitter of the Rhapsody the underlying beauty of the Liszt music was fully revealed.
'Mr Percy Kahn's unobtrusive but effective work added much to the artistic success of the vocal numbers.'
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