Kurt Moll, who will celebrate his 75th birthday this coming spring, was not merely a celebrated opera singer who performed on the world’s most famous stages. The sophistication and precise diction that characterized his greatest roles – such as Gurnemanz in Wagner’s Parsifal, Baron Ochs in Strauss’s Rosenkavalier or Sarastro in Mozart’s Magic Flute – always reminded one that he was a singer who, besides opera, also paid equal attention to the lied, to which he devoted the same perfectionism. As was traditional for a bass with a full-bodied, supple timbre and a deep register, he enjoyed particular triumphs on the concert podium with ballads ranging from Haydn via Loewe to Shostakovich. In the genre of the lied he also achieved success with a repertoire that has usually been dominated by higher voices. If we want to know how Moll managed to become an exception to the rule, we can easily find out by listening to his recording of Schubert’s Winterreise from 1982. It is now available once more on the ORFEO label, and on a single CD for the first-ever time (its length had made this technically impossible in earlier editions). Together with his regular accompanist Cord Garben, Kurt Moll here offers what the international press of the day hailed as an exemplary recording of perhaps the most famous song cycle of all. This recording was thus awarded the Diapason d’or in France, where Moll’s Winterreise was held in similar regard to the legendary performances of Hans Hotter. He was especially praised for his unmannered, introverted interpretation. His thoroughly cantabile style was without any declamatory harshness, yet remains completely clear in its articulation. Kurt Moll’s Winterreise thus remains captivating to the present day and is one of the most important acoustic documents of this singer’s art. With the ideal balance that he achieved between words and music he became not just one of the most significant singers of recent decades, but also one of the singing teachers most in demand.
