Russell Oberlin in Recital (Part One of Four)

[@robertafink9457]

When I, as a teenager, first heard Oberlin's voice (Leonard Bernstein's controversial version of "Messiah"), I thought that it was the voice of a very sexy woman. I was surprised to learn that the voice was than of a man. I have always loved countertenors, but I found Russell Oberlin to be the very best. Regards, Robert A. Fink, M. D. Berkeley, California

[@Winnepausakee]

Russel Oberlin is THE voice of the "counter tenor" or "male soprano" or "high tenor" phylum. His voice is natural, not forced, not what I would call "falsetto" ala Alfred Deller. Oberlin can/did sing most anything as naturally and with as unforced a voice as I can find on any record or disc. Indeed, I should think his effortlessness would be the example for all voices to aspire to. Scrummmage_1999

[@rafaelcortilsayago9353]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/paGcZK2gaLaFd6c

[@sfkcbf]

In the past few years, I encountered a young waiter and also a young supermarket checker who had very beautiful, alto speaking voices. Neither one, however, sang. Apparently, no one recognized their potential or encouraged them to explore singing.

[@VoicesofMusic]

Simply amazing.

[@sfkcbf]

The major reason that Russell Oberlin sounded different from other "countertenors" is that high-tenor / alto was his natural voice.

[@rafaelcortilsayago9353]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/paGcZK2gaLaFd6c

[@IchiganCS]

No, but because he had better technique

[@terrymac6]

@@IchiganCS Yup

[@TimothyAsbridge_TENOR]

@@IchiganCS pure head tone technique to be precise

[@IchiganCS]

@@TimothyAsbridge_TENOR Id never say something is "precise" in terns of singing technique - so many people use terms diffrently

[@KKIcons]

Music for awhile... shall all your cares beguile. I first heard about Russell Oberlin from the amazing Bach Cantata 54 he did with Glenn Gould, but this has become a favorite as well. I watch these with my young daughter, who loves Russell Oberlin. He is a household name around here.

[@annastesia4547]

KK Icons Impressive icons.St.John of Sanfrancisko

[@KKIcons]

Eurythmicc Divisionn Thanks for the compliment on my icons. We love St. John in our family.

[@am-ir2bx]

So bright sounding !

[@mjk5807]

He is a gem of his time; today the countertenors delight, and R. Oberlin was a natural male alto.

[@VoicesofMusic]

Amazing.

[@Rickriquinho]

Music for a while Shall all your cares beguile. Wond'ring how your pains were eas'd And disdaining to be pleas'd Till Alecto free the dead From their eternal bands, Till the snakes drop from her head, And the whip from out her hands.

[@lalagonegaga]

Thanks for uploading this. Very interesting to hear and see this artist at work.

[@richardzuelch375]

Russell Oberlin (1928-2016), American countertenor. Career as a singer (1951-1964).

[@paulsmith5752]

@@savioalves1234 Because the strain of singing so high with an haute-contre technique, in other words using modal voice except at the very top, led to a vocal collapse in his late 30s.

[@kgus123]

Russell Oberlin! I haven't heard this name (or voice) in decades. He may sound "different" from the big name countertenors we hear today, but his voice was similar to his contemporaries. It's been interesting listening to the "evolution" of countertenors over the last 40 years; the naturalness, power ,and flexibitiliy of a Daniels, Scholl, or Dumaux didn't exist when I started listening to early music. Thanks for this trip down memory lane.

[@emailvonsour]

Naturalness?? Scholl?? Are you high?

[@kgus123]

@@emailvonsour No. I'm just old enough to remember how much the countertenors of Scholl's generation sounded less strained than those of Oberlin's.

[@emailvonsour]

@@kgus123 Objectively incorrect. Scholl produces straight tones, like most modern classical singers. Straight tone = garbage singing. He has shitloads of tongue tension. His voice is hideous and unnatural. When did people lose their ears for singing? Why does every singer wobble now? Why do they sound breathy, rough, and yawny? Ever wonder why singers born in the late 1800s never wobbled? Ever wonder why there are 0 stars today? Nobody who sings like Andreas Scholl will EVER be a legitimate international star. No one wants to hear Kermit the Frog sing like Miss Piggy.

[@kgus123]

@@emailvonsour I've heard Kermit sing, but not Miss Piggy -- so I'll have to accept your analysis. I also noticed that you had no opinion of Daniels, or any of Scholl's contemporaries, which is what I was referring to.

[@xbasket12x]

This is so beautiful....would it be weird if I'm 14 and was deeply enjoying this? Because I'm sure not many people around my age listen to this sort of music....

[@fredycastropinzon7342]

Uno de los mejores contratenor es de todos los tiempos por que su voz es natural no como los otros que cantan en falsete o voz de cabeza

[@rafaelcortilsayago9353]

Solo conozco a dos contratenor naturales el gran russell y a este señor que he escuchado kzbin.info/www/bejne/paGcZK2gaLaFd6c

[@Twentythousandlps]

I've never seen a singer who pointed his head up the way Oberlin does, here and on the video of Bwv 54.

[@dstanl]

I’m so used to hearing modern countertenors I’m finding this a bit strange to be honest.

[@robertmonthe9750]

😂 his voice is really pure and crystal clear

[@paulh9277]

rip to a true artist

[@tenor-haute-contre]

Considering the fact that this is a « Low Countertenor » air, he just sounds like a typical Leggero Tenor/Haute-contre to me.

[@arxsyn]

he sounds very similar to a contralto l think

[@SquallPwnLife]

@kgus123 i just stumbled across this guy singing dowland, he certainly didn't strike me as a classic countertenor voice but more of a female lead in a musical or something. he's got this strange (but rather pleasant) tone but i have to say he's very good even if he doesn't have the range of some of his contemporaries

[@thealessio60]

finalmente riesco a a vedere e sentire questo grande-sono irreperibili le sue incisioni.sapevo della sua esistenza ma niente di piu

[@mradaChris]

I'd agree with you there. I had a high voice back in my 20's. People use to think I was the lady of the house when they called! Time has lowered my voice to a tenor/baritone voice.

[@eustazio]

spoken and singing voice are two different things though...

[@grig035]

Oh, but this countertenor's speaking voice is exactly the same as his singing sound, however. Check it out. You can catch Russell Oberlin both speaking and singing -- and using clearly the same sound for both -- at KZbin at /watch?v=2YgrPBTRjMk. You won't find this kind of similarity between the speaking and the singing voice for most of the singers termed countertenor today. That's what makes Oberlin so very unusual. We'd have to take a recording machine back in time to the days of Lully and Purcell(!) to find a greater number of singers as high in both their speaking and singing voices -- and as totally identical(!) -- as Oberlin. It does get confusing, because the term "countertenor" in the last 70 years or so has been promiscuously applied both to the unique case of Oberlin and also to the more familiar type, like a Deller or a Daniels. But confounding the two types is misleading: If you catch the speaking voices of the latter two (fortunately, their speaking voices are also extant), it's clear that they are producing their speaking voices very differently from their singing voices, the former sounding like an ordinary male speaking voice in conversation, but the latter using their treble register instead (sometimes termed their falsetto register). This contrasts with Oberlin's speaking voice (duly linked above) which is identical to his singing sound! Of course, no one, not even a Deller or a Daniels, ever uses their treble register for speaking! It might be less misleading if we were to call the rare Oberlin type "Countertenor" but the more familiar Deller/Daniels type "Treble". Or we might call the latter "countertenor" instead but the former "haute contre", which was indeed the original French term for the Oberlin type back in Lully's day. To use the same term for both types, as has unfortunately been the case for decades now, has caused endless confusion and has proved worse than useless. An Oberlin has about as much connection to a Daniels as a Florez to a Pape!

[@eyeshowyou]

Bruno de Sa is also a natural

[@mradaChris]

Well in my case I was ridiculed for sounding like a girl so I stopped singing in the choir and such for about 25 years.

[@qzrnuiqntp]

What a pity, isn't it? I stopped singing for 6 years, and now I enjoy singing in choirs or little ensembles.

[@joemiller6975]

Too many young men with beautiful voices of this type are discouraged and ridiculed out of careers and thereby music lovers are robbed of the pleasure of hearing them. A young singer Moises Castillo showed great promise as a male soprano but I have not heard from him or seen anything of him in concerts or uploads on the web in several years now. He seems to have disappeared from the music scene, So this is still going on today. Very sad

[@mradaChris]

@@joemiller6975 I use to communicate with him and always wondered what happened

[@mradaChris]

@@qzrnuiqntp last choir I was in I was in the Alto section. Could have sung in soprano section but I made it easy on myself

[@joemiller6975]

@@mradaChris He just vanished it seems ,Such a talented young man with so much potential. I am glad to see people like Bruno Da Se and Lionel Stoffel have success .

[@robert111k]

A mí los contratenores me dan como grimilla, pero éste canta bastante mejor que la media.

[@theleopard9]

1:02 thank me later :)