Marian Nowakowski: The Great Polish Bass in Opera, Oratorio and Song

Marian Nowakowski: The Great Polish Bass in Opera, Oratorio and Song | Basso Marian Nowakowski | A great voice!! A great interpreter?

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Marian Nowakowski:...

	Marian Nowakowski: The Great Polish Bass in Opera, Oratorio and Song Basso Marian Nowakowski Pearl, 2001 average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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All I Know About Nowakowski

All I know about Nowakowski (1912-2000) comes from this CD which I bought from Amazon, having found it as the result of a search for bass singers. According to the liner notes, Nowakowski's recordings were limited, but this release includes private recordings from the collection of Maria Nowakowska Stycos and unpublished Decca recordings. Made in Germany, but published by Pavilion Records of England.

I like his take on the standard bass repertoire pieces ("Monologue of Boris," "Volga Boatmen," and "Dormiro sol," for instance), although some are sung in English, which is not at all obvious at first. The CD includes several songs I have not heard before, such as "Aria Skoluby" from the Polish composer Moniuszko's opera "Straszny Dwór" (The Haunted Manor).

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A great voice!! A great interpreter?

If you love low bass voices or look for solo recitals of outstanding singers, you will be happy to add this item to your collection. I am very glad that I got it: I have about 100 solo CDs of basses and bass-baritones and it was a real pleasure to discover an unjustly neglected fine singer virtually unknown outside the UK.
I guess that opera aficionados already know this CD. For the rest of people I will tell what they get: a great voice, but not a great performer.
Pearl issued a CD entitled in a similar way: Jose Mardones - The great spanish bass. Operatic arias & Song (Pearl Gemm CD 9127). Please, sleep quiet: Nowakowski is not a second Mardones. He was however a pupil of Mardones' contemporary, Polish-Italian bass Adam(o) Didur. Nowakowski's voice is lower: he is a real basso profundo with a dark timbre. He also had a high extension up to the baritone G, but his high notes are not above the ordinary. It is his low notes that are outstanding - not only steady but also beautiful: the real thing on this CD. Skoluba's aria (track 11) and Handel's 'The people that walked in darkness' from Messiah (track 1) show Nowakowski at his best. That he also recorded Wolfram's baritone aria from Tannhauser and Philippe's aria is a strange fancy - his voice fits better to the parts of Landgraf and Grand Inquisitor.
Adamo Didur could sing in a dazzling tempo. Nowakowski could not. But he did not seem to have time to complete his vocal studies - the war broke out in 1939 and he was called up in the military. This CD also shows that he felt more secure when he was going downwards: when he is going up, transitional notes are sometimes a problem.
The best items: track 1 (Messiah) and track 11(Skoluba's aria). Handel's hit 'Ombra mai fu' (track 2) is also fine, though it may struck someone to hear a basso profundo singing it. Osmin's song (track 3) and Sarastro's 'In diesen heilg'en Hallen' (track 5) are really good, too. The Russian arias from 'Boris Godunow', 'Sadko', 'Prince Igor' and Russian songs are weak, except for the Volga Boatmen (track 15): other Russian items suffer both the singer's thick accent and his faulty intonation. Try Chaliapin (everything), Maxime Mikhailov (Konchak from 'Prince Igor' - better than Chaliapin and than anyone else) or Mark Reisen (the Varangian guest from 'Sadko'), if you want to hear how it should sound.
These recordings were likely made in the 1940-s, though the exact date is not always indicated. The sound is good, for the most part.
To sum up: this CD is worth buying for the gorgeous low notes and a few marvellous airs mentioned above. Of course, if you like criticizing great singers and look for their weak sides, this CD is indispensable, too.

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