Hermann Prey
Deborah Overes
Prey? I was at HMV picking up a disc I'd ordered of Prey singing solo Bach
cantatas (thanks for the tip, Greg!) and they had no idea. Nobody seems to
be aware of his passing. I have not seen a single obituary or mention in any
magazines, papers or on any radio show. This was a great artist with a long
and distinguished career - he deserves better.
Deborah Overes
-Aufwiedersehen und Danke Schoen, Hermann Prey.
The great artists never die.
GregF NC
>cantatas (thanks for the tip, Greg!)
Have you listened to it yet?
I've been looking to get the Nozze di Figaro you recommended and went to buy it
last week from my local store, but they'd sold their only copy. Maybe I can
get it for a decent price in Toronto.
Best wishes,
Greg F(in North Carolina)
Benjamin Maso
Brahms folksongs have ever been issued on CD?
Benjo Maso
SirodEnaj
Here is the text:
Hermann Prey Is Dead at 69; Baritone in Opera and Lieder
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI
Hermann Prey, the German lyric baritone who was in the 46th year of an
international career as an acclaimed singer of lieder and opera, died on
Wednesday night in Munich, Germany. He had recently turned 69.
The cause of death was a heart attack, according to Sissy Strauss, an
artistic liaison at the Metropolitan Opera and a longtime friend, who spoke by
phone with Prey's wife of 44 years, known as Barbel.
Since his New York recital debut in 1956, Prey performed frequently in New
York and attracted a loyal following. Just last spring, with the conductor
James Levine at the piano, Prey gave a recital of late Schubert lieder,
including the composer's last song cycle, "Schwanengesang" (Swan Song) at the
92d Street Y.
This concert concluded the Y's Schubertiade, a 10-year examination of
Schubert's works, which was Prey's idea and for which he had served as musical
director. An illness earlier in the year had forced him to postpone the
recital. When he did perform, though his voice had frayed, the musicianship,
intelligence, and unmannered expressivity that were hallmarks of his work were
undiminished.
Recalling that recital, Trudy Miller, who was the program director of the
Schubertiade, said yesterday: "It was clear to all of us there that Hermann
Prey was leaving a blueprint of his artistry."
Though Prey's voice was a mellow, light baritone, he sang with such focused
sound and robust projection, that he enjoyed an active career in opera. He
avoided the heavier Verdi roles, but excelled at Mozart, Gluck, Rossini, and
lighter Strauss and Wagner roles. One of his great achievements was Beckmesser
in Wagner's "Meistersinger," which he sang at the Met in 1993.
To his characterization of this town clerk in medieval Nuremberg, typically
portrayed as a scheming buffoon, Prey brought an emotional complexity and
light-on-the-feet comic grace, which made Beckmesser endearing.
Prey's voice was ideally suited to lieder, and he left a large and important
discography, including songs by Schubert, Schumann, Strauss, Mahler, and Carl
Loewe, a neglected 19th-century composer whom Prey championed.
Commenting on Prey's 1985 recording of Schubert's "Winterreise" with the
pianist Philippe Bianconi, The New York Times critic Bernard Holland wrote:
"This is Schubert singing that does not twist sound for pictorial or dramatic
effect but instead creates, with unusual musical clarity and purity of tone, a
narrative voice which, though concerned and moved, tells the story first and
lives it only indirectly."
Prey was born on July 11, 1929, in Berlin, the son of a merchant. His mother
encouraged her son's love of music. At 15, he passed the physical examination
for the German army. But when his draft notice arrived during the last siege of
Berlin in 1945, his father burned it.
Speaking of it in an interview with The Times in 1970, Prey said: "For three
weeks we had been living in the basement of my grandfather's house, eating
canned foods. We would listen in terror to the screeching of the bombs, the
explosions day and night, the gunfire. . . I know that the fear I learned then
is at the root of the icy emotions I project whenever I sing Schubert's 'Die
Winterreise.' "
After the war, Prey led a school band in concerts for English and American
troops. To earn money, he sang and played piano and accordion. In 1948, he
enrolled in the Hochschule fur Musik in Berlin to study with Gunter Baum.
In 1952, he won the third annual Meistersinger contest, sponsored by the
United States Armed Forces assistance program for German youth activities. Some
2,800 singers between the ages of 18 and 25 entered, and Prey took first place,
winning a stipend of $190 and a two-week concert tour of the United States. His
American debut came in November of that year as a guest of the Philadelphia
Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy.
Returning to Germany, Prey joined the Hamburg Staatsoper, singing a wide
range of repertory, including a number of contemporary operas by Rolf
Liebermann, Gottfried von Einem, Luigi Dallapiccola, and Hans Werner Henze.
Though he was not notably involved with new music in later years, he became a
highly praised interpreter of the title role in Berg's "Wozzeck."
Prey's 1960 Met debut, as Wolfram in Wagner's "Tannhauser" received mixed
notices. But he triumphed in his subsequent Met roles, including the Count in
"Le Nozze di Figaro," Figaro in "Il Barbiere di Siviglia," and Eisenstein in
"Die Fledermaus." One of his favorites was Papageno in "Die Zauberflote," which
he first sang at the Met in 1967. "Papageno is misinterpreted by many singers
today," Prey said in the 1970 Times interview. "He is actually 'ein Wesen,' a
creature of God in nature, a living thing between animal and human, a folk
philosopher, a kind of Peter Pan who flies, a wise member of Snow White's
dwarfs."
At 6 feet, with a perpetually unkempt shock of curly blond (later
silver-gray) hair, Prey was a compelling figure on stage. He was also
easygoing, articulate and telegenic: for some years he served as host of a
television program in Munich, performing songs, discussing music and
interviewing guests, which earned him a reputation as Europe's Leonard
Bernstein.
He and his wife lived outside of Munich and had a summer home on a remote
North Sea island. Besides his wife, he is survived by three children, Annette,
Florian and Franziska, and several grandchildren.
Prey's longevity as a singer was due, in part, to solid technique and a
willingness to turn down roles too heavy for his voice. "I become so sad when I
see my colleagues whose voices have gone while they are still young," he was
quoted as saying in "Musical America" in 1970, adding, "I want people to say,
when I am 65 or 70, 'Oh look, here comes old Prey to do the 'Winterreise.'
Let's go hear him.' "
Friday, July 24, 1998
<A HREF="aol://4344:104.nytcopy.6445375.574106743">Copyright 1998 The New York
Times</A>
SirodEnaj
Commspkmn
be aware of his passing. I have not seen a single obituary or mention in any
magazines, papers or on any radio show. This was a great artist with a long
and distinguished career - he deserves better.>>
On Sunday, August 23, at 7:00P , I'll be featuring a 1965 Orfeo recording of La
Traviata with Teresa Stratas, Fritz Wunderlich and Prey on my Pittsburgh opera
show on WQED-FM. The post-opera segment (approx. 9:20-10:00P) will be a
tribute to Hermann Prey.
Ken Meltzer
Matthew B. Tepper
siro...@aol.com pondered what I'm pondering as follows:
>
>There was an appreciative obituary of Prey by Anthony Tommasini in the
>Times. Here is the text:
That was an obit fit for the fine artist who was Prey. Thank you for
repeating it here.
--
Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks!
My personal home page -- http://www.deltanet.com/~ducky/index.htm
My main music page --- http://www.deltanet.com/~ducky/berlioz.htm
And my science fiction club's home page --- http://www.lasfs.org/
To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion
Ian Graham
<dov...@sprint.ca> writes
>Has anyone else noticed the total silence concerning the death of Hermann
>Prey?
> I have not seen a single obituary or mention in any
>magazines, papers or on any radio show. This was a great artist with a long
>and distinguished career - he deserves better.
There were extensive obituaries in the major British newspapers.
IG
--
Ian Graham mailto:i...@robinsg.demon.co.uk
Fred Ireson
I didn't want to see the beautiful Shari Lewis/Lamb Chop go either.
Fred Ireson
JDavis6627
>I didn't want to see the beautiful Shari Lewis/Lamb Chop go either.
>
>
But it was Shari Lewis who got the biography on A&E. They never bother with
singers.
Jon Davis
"We are all fumbling along . . alone."
Ned Rorem
Matthew B. Tepper
jdavi...@aol.com pondered what I'm pondering as follows:
>
>>With some shock, I (accidently) caught mention of Prey's death
>>@MSNBC. I didn't want to see the beautiful Shari Lewis/Lamb Chop go
>>either.
>
>But it was Shari Lewis who got the biography on A&E. They never
>bother with singers.
They don't seem to bother much with classical musicians, either.
I remember last summer when some friends of mine asked me if I was
going to go see David Helfgott play at the Hollywood Bowl. I thought
about it, and decided I had no interest in a chain-smoking pianist with
emotional problems who became famous in the movies. So I just stayed
home and watched "Biography" on Oscar Levant.
Jo
Mike Richter
>
> <<Nobody seems to
> magazines, papers or on any radio show. This was a great artist with a long
> and distinguished career - he deserves better.>>
>
> Traviata with Teresa Stratas, Fritz Wunderlich and Prey on my Pittsburgh opera
> show on WQED-FM. The post-opera segment (approx. 9:20-10:00P) will be a
> tribute to Hermann Prey.
> Ken Meltzer
I wish you more enthusiasm than the tribute I posted that week at my WWW
site received.
More than twice as many visitors and more than twice as many MB were
inspired by the problematic La Scala ''Lucrezia Borgia''. The video clip
of Prey's Wolfram was virtually untouched - which is a particular
disappointment since it is the only such I know from his early years.
Mike
--
mric...@mindspring.com
http://mrichter.simplenet.com
CD-R http://resource.simplenet.com
Deborah Overes
heroes (his picture has hung on my living room wall since I was a student)
has not passed unnoticed. I'm aware of his flaws but, for me, no other
singer could match his warmth and sheer honeyed tone. He personified
"gemutlichkeit" for me.
K. Howson-jan
>More than twice as many visitors and more than twice as many MB were
>inspired by the problematic La Scala ''Lucrezia Borgia''. The video clip
>of Prey's Wolfram was virtually untouched - which is a particular
>disappointment since it is the only such I know from his early years.
Mike, I hope you will keep the Prey video clip accessible on your website,
just in case a few people missed it. I played it a couple of times, and was
captivated by the sound of his voice.
Kang Howson-Jan
(khows...@zdnetmail.com)
Mike Richter
> Mike, I hope you will keep the Prey video clip accessible on your website,
> just in case a few people missed it. I played it a couple of times, and was
> captivated by the sound of his voice.
I am sorry to disappoint you, but I keep a page up for only one week.
Eventually, it will appear on a CD-ROM, but I have dropped video from
them because of difficulties in browsing them there.
The trick is: download the files and keep the ones you wish until the
CD-ROM becomes available.
Mike
Jeffrey Snider
--
Jeffrey Snider, DMA
Associate Professor
College of Music
University of North Texas
Denton, TX 76203 USA
Deborah Overes
Jeffrey Snider wrote in message <6rbrvq$j46$1...@news-1.news.gte.net>...
One of my treasured recordings is Prey's "Romantische Oper" recording on Eurodisc. He sings arias by Lortzing, Marschner, Nessler, etc. For me, the surprise "hit" is the charming "Da wo schönen Mädchen wohnen" from Lortzing's Die Beiden Schützen. I had never heard it before and have never heard it since, but it's a winner!
--
Jeffrey Snider, DMAI loooooooooooove this recording. The library at McGill had it on LP and I pretty much wore it out. "Da wo schonen Madchen wohnen" was a favourite of mine as well. Is this available on CD? If it is, would you have the CD number so that I can order it? You will make my week!