Helge Roswaenge boasted one of the most thrilling tenors of the century. In terms of heights and volume it seemed capable of almost anything its owner asked of it—and he was quite unstinting in its employment. Many of us brought up on 78rpm recordings of opera first encountered him in his quite overwhelming account of Florestan's scena, the only one in my experience that, from a vocal point of view, wholly measures up to Beethoven's exorbitant demands. We probably then moved on to Roswaenge's exciting record coupling outrageously ebullient accounts of arias by Auber and Adam, the Postillon's song reaching—in this performance—a high D of quite prodigious strength. Then it was on to the Italian Singer's ''Di rigori armato'' from Der Rosenkavalier, another unsurpassed performance that matches the character's sense of tenorial conceit. Or, perhaps if we were looking for something unfamiliar, it would be the bold, trumpet-like account of Huon's aria from Oberon, another unequalled piece of tenor machismo—both for the heroics of the outer sections and the sensuous mezza voce of the Andante. By the time we turned to Max's ''Durch die Walder'', we were perhaps thinking there were a few chinks in the Roswaenge armoury. While appreciating the healthy bloom on the tone and the smile in the voice, we may have felt this to be perhaps too extrovert a forester. But even here the sheer confidence of the attack is hard to resist. Preiser gain points for including all these items except the Freischutz aria. Pearl, as was sure to be the case, include that and the Fidelio piece, but not the others.
Both transfers of the Fidelio are satisfactory, but in the only other items where there is an overlap, the Trovatore and Carmen arias, Preiser are to be preferred. Throughout they manage to play down surface noise (or use better copies) while never affecting the immediacy of the voice. Besides, the Pearl version of the Flower song, not a very idiomatic performance by the way, has a troublesome scratch near the end. The copy of the second La boheme duet is afflicted by an unacceptable amount of a hiss and crackle. That's a pity, since one of the chief advantages of the Pearl is to allow us to hear the quite lovely and affecting voice of the Polish soprano, Hedwig von Debicka. Happily the Act 1 duet from the same opera is taken from a good copy, for this is a refined and moving performance, while the Tosca duet is as erotic as it should be. Roswaenge also proves himself a not inconsiderable Verdian in the Forza duet with Husch, but his Mozart is decidedly bumpy.
If I were to choose one of these two discs to represent Roswaenge in my collection it would have to be Preiser. Besides the delights already mentioned, it includes an account of ''Celeste Aida'', or rather ''Holde Aida''—everything on both CDs is in German except for the Rosenkavalier item—that exhibits the tenor's heady style at its best. The familiar aria is gracefully and poetically shaped and ends with a poised, pianissimo high B flat. Then Roswaenge was justifiably admired as Canio. His histrionics here in ''Vesti la giubba'' are no more excessive than those of most Italian tenors, and the phrasing is expansive. These and the wartime accounts of Cavaradossi's arias may be slightly too Germanic in style, but they are sung with such sappy, open tone as to be irresistible. The Glinka is another Roswaenge speciality, replete with uninhibited high notes and delivered with passionate elan. It's a pity space is given to the paltry items from the work by the forgotten Wille, but then this is a creator's record.
Neither disc gives the length of tracks, or—of course—includes texts and translations but at least Preiser tell us the conductors or orchestras where known. Surely, if these issues are to be offered at full price buyers deserve much more information and help, even from smaller companies.'