# Vocal vibrato and Mozart



## petpap (Oct 25, 2011)

I am having problem with the amount of vibrato in Mozart vocal works.

I love my Mozart recordings to sound fresh, alive and with clear sound. I appreciate exquisitely phrased performances which feel spontaneous. I detest overly romantic interpretations made with overly sized orchestras. I also don't like Mozart to sound too "fluffy heaven", but to be more down to earth.

Some of my favourite recordings I have been listening to lately are the piano concertos with Viviana Sofronitzki (they are amazing! the fortepiano rocks!!), the Scottish Chamber Orchestra or Andrew Manzes recordings of the serenadas. Mostly I like HIP performances, but not because of authenticity - the only important thing for me is that I love the music...

I hate operatic vibrato on the voices which is present on all versions I have heard so far (and I have heard many...). Occasional vibrato as an effect is fine, it's only when it is permanent that I detest it. Did singers always sing like that or is it a 20th century fenomena?

What surprises me is that operatic vibrato voices are present on both modern and period instrument recordings. I would have guessed that permanent voice vibrato would be absent in period instrument performances because the strings do not play with vibrato, but this is obviously not the case.

As Charles Mackerras once remarked: 'This is one area where we aren't being authentic. Even though our singers have tremendous understanding of the style, they don't have the same kind of voices as [Mozart's] original singers. People today would complain they had rather small voices and, of course, no vibrato. We can cope with the lack of vibrato where instruments are concerned, but period voices sound so different from the average opera singer that they've never caught on.' (taken from opera.co.uk/view-review.php?reviewID=46&PHPSESSID=707dffd1bcf0d7433216945b76d20a37 )

I find it remarkable that there still seems to exist NO Mozart vocal performance recording with natural smaller voices in the year 2011. Why does the HIP movement only bother with instruments and not with voices?

Can anybody recommend me some Mozart opera performances with no permanent vibrato? If there is none - which performances do come close? Other sources on the Internet say that Ingmar Bergmans Magic flute or Arnold Östmans performances come close, but I haven't found this to be true...


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

Alma, you got this one?


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

To a very limited extent I agree, primarily about singers who sing every note with maximum, always-on vibrato (Lawrence Brownlee comes to mind). The smaller voices thing, however, just isn't going to happen; anyone who chooses a career as an opera singer must, in order to succeed to any degree, have a large enough voice to fill a modern opera house. Even the smallest of professional opera houses today seat well over 1000 people, and the majority are probably 2k+. Someone with a voice incapable of filling such a space will almost by definition not pursue a career in opera - why go through years of training if you can't even make a living at it?
Obviously, period instruments are a different matter -- a violinist's training will not interfere with them using period instruments as opposed to modern ones.


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## petpap (Oct 25, 2011)

Forget live music then - but there must at least be a demand for opera recordings with more natural vocals. Vocal Renaissance and Baroque music is better treated than Mozart - there are plenty of recordings available with more natural vocals.....

At least every third year there arrives a new recording of Le Nozze di Figaro and none brings us anything new...why not issue a recording with "smaller voices" - this would satisfy both the HIP audience and many many newcomers to opera.

I don't think I am the only one loving classical music but disliking the unnatural vocal tradition. There is a reason why no pop/rock/jazz/soul artist uses this kind of vocal technique (except maybe Freddie Mercury  )

Anyway - can anybody recommend CDs or DVDs where there is less vibrato going on in the vocals than usual?


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Jacobs has a great set of HIP recordings of Mozart with fairly "light" voices. Are you familiar with these?

They are on sale at Presto classical until 2 November. I've just bought the lot.


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