More Than a Wolf Man: Niall Hoskin admires the artistry of a fine baritone sadly typecast by recording companies

Review of Herbert Janssen: Portrait of a Mastersinger, excerpts from Der fliegende Holländer, Tannhäuser, Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Parsifal, music by Bach, Benatzky, Brahms, Fitch-Lowe, Gounod, Grieg, Lortzing, Puccini, Schubert, Schumann, Strauss, Verdi, Wolf, baritone Herbert Janssen, recorded at various locations including Berlin, Bayreuth, London, Buenos Aires and New York, 1927–48 (Marston Records, 6 CDs).

November 2024, Volume 18, Number 3, 85–7.

Herbert Janssen (1892–1965) was hailed as having a beautiful Italianate bel canto baritone but is now known for his Wagner roles, proving that the two are by no mean mutually exclusive. Marston Records here presents all Janssen’s studio recordings in typically vivid transfers, with an informative, encyclopaedic (and sometimes opinionated) 78-page booklet. Song recordings account for about half of these discs, a disproportionate amount given the trajectory of his career.