Waldemar Kmentt
Fruehe Aufnahmen 1952-1956
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Like several other tenors Waldemar Kmennt started out with principal roles and finished as a comprimario. In these early recordings, originally made for Philips, Kmennt proves to have a bright focused sound; a bit like an early Wunderlich. He employs a cultured personal sound, stylish and without sobs. His top notes are fine and strong, though they not always come easily and one hears from time to time he has to push them out with lot of breath or a guffaw.
What is lacking (surely in the Italian arias, all sung in German) is warmth and sensuousness. There is no “Schmelz” as the Viennese say in that unremitting silvery sound and he cannot overcome the handicaps of clumsy translations which really great German-singing tenors like Tauber, Schmidt and Konya could, not withstanding the language. What is lacking too is original phrasing and a diversification of dynamics ( a pity, as he can sing a fine diminuendo like he does in Cielo e mar). He makes some strange choices, skipping the high A in Come un bel di di Maggio and then interpolating the same note at the very end of the aria which makes a very unmusical effect. All in all, compared to the real big boys of the time, he sounds a little bit pedestrian and parochial.