Richard Tauber Gave Much To Posterity

Chronicle (Levin), 13 February 1948, Page 5

Richard Tauber Gave Much To Posterity

— Richard Tauber, the AustriAnborn singer whose death wRt. reported from London rec'ently, became in the 25 years of his concert career the most popular tenor, of his generation. Conducting, gramophone recordings and radio and film work contributed to. his fame, which brought a success as. spectacular and universal as that. of Caruso in a previous era. Born in Linz, near • Vienna, in 1892, Tauber grew up in a world of drama, opera and the Strauss waltzes. The son of an actor, Tauber as a boy wrote and produced ehildren's plays. One of the strange coincidences of his life was that he began his musical career as an orchestral conductor an'd ended it in the same way, conducting operettas in London. Because his voice did not show mueh promise in his youth, Tauber was trained at the Frankfurt Cons'ervatoire as a conductor and an actor. His professor at Freiburg, where he continued his musical studies, and his first wife, Carlotta Vanconti, an opera singer and a first-class teacher, were the two people to whom he owed most of the development of his voice. Although Tauber "was fond of conducting an'd composed mueh music — his friends said he was more proud of being a composer thaip of being the world's highestpaid singer — it was as a singer of Mozart music and light opera that he rose to the pinnacle of fame. People sometimes say that I am a low-brow," he once' said. "To my mind, the important thing is ' not what you sing, but how you sing it." -Herein lay the secret of mueh of his success. His general styie and generosity on the platform wqn all hearts. The quality of his singing, made the commonplace in music seem distmguished, and when he sang serious compositions, his rich and sensitive artistry confoun'ded those prepared to criticise. . He ' was especially renowned in this field as a singer of Grieg songs and Schubert lieder. Germany was the scene of Taus ,e^ly triumphs, but because his. father was half- Jewish the Nazis drove him into exile. When iQQ?P©+id for Britistl citizenship in 1938, Hitler seized his £60,000 savlngs, his £10,000 insuranee policy l™, hls Houses in Vienna and -Salzburg. His most successful film appearance was as Franz Schubert Time g lsh Pictlire "Blossom Those who knew Tauber liked 5™ ^ mueh for his personal qualitaes as for his gifts -as ..a singer. hS-n goefe!i°Sity and ViHingness to linc'- miiSiean are illustrated in an mcident at his final -SydufZ 2°^er Tauber introduced td the audience a young Australian composer, whose workfhe Sid de-, then' ' The Australian - tnen played the composition which attracted Tauber's attention it rell nla^D8010 and Tahbe"iffm2 self played the accomaa.nimpnf-