Books › Musical Courier 1907-12-04: Vol 55 Iss 23, 1907 › scan 28
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Musical Courier 1907-12-04: Vol 55 Iss 23, 1907
28 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. Printed page 29. See the scan on archive.org.
1DR. LUDWIG WÜLLNER
3SOME GERMAN PRESS NOTICES OF THE FAMOUS LIEDER SINGER
5Ludwig Wuellner gave his fourth song recital this year in the Beethoven Hall on Tuesday. This eminent artist knew how to hold his listeners spellbound by the magic power of his great talent and even to help them over the excessive length, noticeable at times, of his "Franz Schubert Evening." The hall was sold out, as usual, and the grateful audience gave him a warm and well-deserved ovation.—Freisinnige Zeitung, Berlin, February, 1907.
7Dr. Ludwig Wuellner offered the admirers of his unique art a Franz Schubert evening, and on Tuesday the Beethoven Hall was filled to the very last seat. His varied renderings contained, among others, a series of rarely heard songs, of which he recited "Die Erwartung" and "Prometheus" with remarkable fire. His singing brought him again a veritable storm of applause, for which he thanked with the addition "Erlkönig."—Der Reichsanzeiger, Berlin, February, 1907.
9Of all the song recitals of the last week, I only mention that of Ludwig Wuellner, who dedicated his fourth song evening at Beethoven Hall exclusively to Franz Schubert. Herr Wuellner once more proved himself to be the unsurpassable master of recitative art he is known as, whose every song becomes an experience. He had chosen from the rich treasury of the Vienna master chiefly such songs as are hardly ever heard in the concert hall, as the majority of singers generally remain true to one and the same repertoire.—Deutsche Zeitung, Berlin, March, 1907.
11On Sunday afternoon Ludwig Wuellner sang in the great Festival Hall of the Zentral Theater no less than thirty-two songs by Hugo Wolf to an audience of 900 persons. The full heartfelt tones of "Auf einer Wanderung" were the best received among the Moerike songs. With "Der Freund," "Fussreise" and "Liebesglück" Wuellner carried us away to the summits on which we ever and again greet Wolf as the new king of songs. In "Liebesglück," which was demanded da capo, Wuellner found almost metallic tones and everywhere did his marvellously thought out declamation carry the singer to certain success.—Leipziger Abendzeitung, March, 1907.
13Wherever Wuellner can attain heights or depths he can best produce his full force. Joyous unto the skies or wounded to death, those are the moods for which he can ever find the most fitting expressions. But all things humoristic, too, are within his grasp, and here he is greatly assisted by an eminent histrionic talent and an exceptionally flowing speech.—Leipziger Neueste Nachrichten, March, 1907.
15Every time one hears Wuellner it is an experience. There is no second artist whom routine has been able to hurt so little in a constant practice of art, whose conception and ability, interpretation and comprehension have been so absolutely non-mechanized. It never matters with this unique artist that he has sung a song once before, or often. He seems to have forgotten that. He creates it as he sings it, just as he did the first time of all, with the holy earnestness of the creator, with the convicting power of the interpreter, so that each time it becomes an improvisation. Wuellner sang last night thirty songs, by Hugo Wolf—thirty songs which all reflected just as many or even more hues, which exhausted all the depths of human feeling and in which no phase of humor and frivolous mood is unknown. His voice, which was equal to all of the manifold shadings, seemed to grow in glowing power and expressiveness from one song to another. It is impossible to name any one as specially successful, for then they would all have to be recounted.—Hamburger Correspondent, March, 1907.
17Ludwig Wuellner produced himself to his numberless admirers and adherents in quite a new role in his Hugo Wolf evening. He stood before us a master of victorious humor, a master of humorous technic. The pliability of his voice, which now, since Wuellner rejected the high and forced tenor position, is of iron health and has attained full metallic sounds, brought forth the most extraordinary colorings; in every song he pictured with greatest exactitude the mood with a knowledge of character which made us see what the artist sang in the plastic fullness of life itself. Mastery in characteristic, the best of taste and perfect knowledge of recitative art, added to the individual note of a forceful individuality and great spiritual culture—this is the basis for all Wuellner sings, and as there were thirty songs with which this knight of spirituality delighted his enthusiastic audience, an idea may be made of the artistic riches and delights of this evening. Wuellner sang, before he entered into humoristic phases, several of the Moerike songs, pieces from the Italian and Spanish Song Book, with ripe expressiveness backed by the powers of a passionate soul and highly poetic moods. The genial artist was greeted with the warmest applause.—Hamburger Nachrichten, March, 1907.
19That was a day of unforgettable impressions. An artist whose grand power of creation, deepest knowledge, absolute comprehension of the poetical idea, whose eminent rich power of musical conception lights up the very smallest values of the life and interpretation of the various songs and renders them with universal mentality. Since Gura's death we possess no second artist able to show us the masterpieces of our song-poets and composers in such perfect, clear and inimitable art of characterization, to move us so profoundly, to touch us, to dazzle us with the moods of different epochs and heterogeneous conceptions so rapidly as does Ludwig Wuellner. Koenigsberg's art lovers must be specially grateful to Wuellner for the pioneer work he, one of the most fiery champions of all great and new, has accomplished in his European tours for Konstanz Berncker. The Berncker ballads were surrounded by exquisite pearls from the treasure troves of Schubert, Hugo Wolf and Strauss, crowned in conclusion by the four wonderfully impressive, serious songs by Brahms. With these creations Wuellner held a requiem in his own way for the master, now slumbering since ten years in the Vienna Central Churchyard, and who was one of the greatest and noblest of all times.—Koenigsberg Ostpreussische Zeitung, January, 1907.
21Nothing is as interesting as a Ludwig Wuellner evening. If the listener be very musical he will be delighted with the high, pure musically intelligence, the fine phrasing and the correct accentuation of every tone in the system, quite apart from the clear intonation. He who demands from a singer a masterly technical interpretation will have to bow to Wuellner's vocal art with its accuracy, fineness of shading and clever breathing. If one desires poetical inspiration and wishes the contents of the song to grip him with elementary power, then he need but turn to Wuellner; there he finds more than he dreamt of. Has one none of these preliminary desires, then he may open his eyes, for the facial play of the singer is a veritable work of art. Take a finely formed nature, glowing with warmest enthusiasm for all beautiful in art, fill it with a mighty desire for deeds, with a lively phantasy, speaking facial play, expressive organ, a Faustic striving artist, entering with endless care into the contents of a poem, who declaims it with all the artistic powers of the actor and then makes the expressions won thereby useful in his singing—that would about characterize Ludwig Wuellner, the Lieder singer. Is it surprising that the artist who sang five rarely heard songs by Schubert, Schumann's "Dichterliebe" and seven songs by Brahms, has found his congregation here among us, too, who filled the Isabellen Hall of the Guerzenich to the very last song phrase in an attitude of reverent listening?—Kölnische Zeitung, March, 1896.
23Dr. Ludwig Wuellner reaped an inimitable success yesterday at the Schwarzhaeupter Hall once again by the forceful magnetic power of his unsurpassable musical and dramatic conceptions. What pure, unadulterated, convincingly true art really means Wuellner teaches us—this unique artist, this reproductive genius, thanks to his overpowering interpretative methods drawn from the source of a high standard of mental vitality. A storm of unanimous enthusiasm enveloped the great artist, finding its climax in its elementary outburst after the deeply stirring unforgettable rendition of Schumann's "Grenadiers."—Rigaer Duna Zeitung, December, 1903.
25Last night Wuellner took his leave of the Copenhagen public, which he had seen a few nights before lay their enthusiasm at his feet. The Casino Hall was sold out the day before and in the evening the audience was so deeply impressed that there was no end to the applause. This strange, earnest man with the handsome and rugged features is for us like an oasis in the desert in which we parch. For, as far as recitative art is concerned, the Danish concert hall resembles a desert. Wuellner gives his listeners his own self, wholly and absolutely, and so generously and openly that he carries his audiences away with him. This evening brought us the pleasing proof that in spite of all adoration of unreal and imitated goods, there still lives here among us a deep and fine understanding for the truth for feeling and mental riches, if the giver himself possesses these qualities. Musical critics have had perhaps this or that to say of Wuellner's voice, but they all have to surrender arms before his intelligence and art perfection, and with such deep reverence that words fail in their ability to place the deep and overwhelming impression received on paper. For two and a half hours did Wuellner hold his audience so deeply in his grip that the hours sped by unnoticed. With hardly believable energy he sang about twenty longer and shorter songs and finally ended with a masterly rendering of Ernst von Wildenbruch's "Hexenlied." And then, as a da capo, he sang the so often heard "Grenadier" song with such grand pathos and such marvelous fullness of tone that the ranks of his hearers absolutely swayed with emotion and enthusiasm.—Vortland, Copenhagen, February, 1907.
27Such an evening is an event in the human life, such an evening binds human souls more closely together; it is a feast of art, a religious service, a prayer and offering to the highest of ideals. Why waste many words? Our soul has lived—how can that be more closely explained? It is impossible! We are carried away unbeknown, our phantasy is so strongly excited and worked upon that we firmly believe, in the very moment of our artistic emotions, to be able to grasp the impression received in some tangible shape. But one single picture sinks deeply into the human soul which harmonizes with the feelings awakened in such hours as we experienced last evening—a picture known to all, understood by all and conceived by all according to each single individuality—the picture of holy, pure and godlike love. In all its manifold expressions art can but awaken this in the human being.—Het Nieuws van den Dag, Amsterdam, February, 1906.
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