If you buy or stream the digital version, it contains two Robert Schumann song cycles, Dichterliebe and Kerner-Lieder,recorded in early 2020 with Helmut Deutsch at the piano. It also includes excerpts from a student performance of Dichterliebe by Kaufmann and Jan Philip Schulze from 1994 when he was 25.
However, if you opt for the physical album, it includes a DVD of the performance piece Doppelgänger, a stage work commissioned by the Park Avenue Armory in NYC, that was created by Claus Guth for Kaufmann and Deutsch. It premiered in September 2023 when it was also filmed for this release.
It is a kind of metaphysical high-Konzept jukebox musical that uses the songs of Schubert’s Schwanengesang along with the second movement from Schubert’s Piano Sonata D.960 as well as atmospheric interludes by Mathis Nitschke. The vast Drill Hall at the Park Avenue Armory has been reconfigured as a wartime hospital ward filled with wounded and their attending nurses. Deutsch’s piano sits at the center floating like a lighthouse in a sea of misery. Kaufmann, one of the patients, is at the moment where, according to Guth, “your soul steps out…and you understand that you are dying.” In its way, the Guth production of La bohème for Paris, set on a doomed space mission, has a similar focus
Gabrielle Ferrari reviewed this fascinating piece for parterre box when it was at the Armory. For me, it’s one of Kaufmann’s most powerful recorded performances. His total commitment to the staging, the detailed acting choices, and his ability to deliver strong, musically refined renditions of these Lieder under physically challenging conditions where he is not close to the pianist make for a remarkable, unique experience.
Monika Rittershaus, courtesy of Park Avenue Armory
Turning to the audio-only performances on the disk, we encounter something very different. The performances are musically diligent, but too “safe.”. They rely too much on crooning and could use more of the manic intensity that he brings to the live Schwanengesang performance. Helmut Deutsch is an exemplary accompanist and he finds much poetry and nuance in the piano parts, even if his contribution seems to be dialed down by the engineers. The student performances are an interesting artifact. Young Kaufmann’s voice is unrecognizable and it shows much he has reconfigured his voice and technique over time.
For another side of Kaufmann’s art, there is another new-ish recording entitled Puccini Love Affairs (reviewed here by the late Patrick Mack) featuring six different sopranos in duets from six different operas accompanied by the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna under conductor Asher Fisch. I was surprised by how much the heat and chemistry varied from selection to selection. The Fanciulla duet with Malin Byström has the authentic electricity and ardor of a staged performance. The Tabarro duet with Asmik Grigorian is very memorable as well, even though I don’t think Kaufmann has ever performed this opera on stage. The Manon Lescaut duet with Anna Netrebko, however, is surprisingly moribund.
The other duets are fine and worth hearing for both Kaufmann fans and the Kaufmann-curious. Overall, we are missing the abandon and immediacy Kaufmann brings to his live stage performances. For that I recommend hunting down the recent video of Turandot with Kaufmann and Asmik Griogrian from Vienna in yet another fascinating Claus Guth production. That performance definitely merits a commercial release.
