“Helge Roswaenge in light music” is the title. Nothing the matter with that, at least on the face of it, for Roswaenge, though essentially an opera singer, had an authentic way with him in operetta and plenty of character for the lively singing of a popular song. But oh dear, those songs! The second CD is entirely devoted to them, waltz songs and tangos, gipsy violin and accordion, commonplace tunes and terrible rhymes. One or two, once in a while, maybe; a whole sequence and a permanent place on the shelves, surely not. The first disc has more to commend it. Roswaenge knows the business from Arme Jonathan to Zigeunerbaron, and can command at will a Tauberish suavity, a comic turn, or an elegantly rolling gait to take him in the direction of Maxim’s. A surprise package is included in a pot-pourri of excerpts from Der Obersteiger. This is, for one thing, a most sumptuous recording for its period, with full chorus and orchestra, an unusual freedom of space, and an enchanting selection of high-spirited numbers that make one think what a colourful show it must have been. There is another too, from Leo Falls’ Die geschiedene Frau, not quite as good but with the delectable Lilli Claus as soprano soloist. These and a few other things make the first CD worth having.
Roswaenge is in unfailingly healthy voice. He gives unstintingly throughout, and apart from the odd nasal production here and there and an occasional bout of German overemphasis he sings stylishly and well. Still, this is at best a tailpiece, an afterthought, in the Roswaenge collection. First should come the operatic anthologies, also on Preiser and from pre-war years. He continued of course to sing long after, as the good biographical note reminds us. What I wish that it also gave is some information about how much operetta work Roswaenge did, and which of those represented here were parts he sang on stage. Would I be right, for instance, in thinking that the entertaining sketch he gives of Millocker’s ‘poor Jonathan’ is a studio event with no stage experience behind it?'