Schubert: Song "Gretchen am Spinnrade" (Benjamin Zander - Interpretation Class)

For more classes like this one, please visit the Benjamin Zander Center - www.benjaminzander.org/
Angela Ruiz, soprano and Dina Vainshtein, piano
Interpretations of Music: Lessons for Life
with Benjamin Zander
Dave Jamrog Audio/Video

[@klausheidemann3572]

Auch wenn ich Benjamin Zander persönlich nie kennengelernt habe, sondern nur seine Videos verfolge, erinnert mich alles an meine Ausbildungszeit vor zig Jahren, in denen ich als Student von jüdisch,-amerikanischen Lehrern, namentlich Ramy Shevelov in Hannover damals die wichtigsten Unterweisungen und Hinweise zur Ausführung von Musik aus welcher Epoche auch immer erhalten und mitgenommen habe! Bin sehr glücklich über diese youtube videos und hoffe, dass sie von vielen angehenden Musikern angesehen werden! Klaus

[@cantante189]

It was great when she connected with the emotion of the text. I recommend studying German. It will help immensely with delivery.

[@markpkessinger]

Indeed, studying German would help tremendously. The beauty of the language lies in is very precise vowel sounds, such as the very closed 'u' in "Ruh".

[@baritonebynight]

Classical singers in the US generally study Italian, French, and German...both language and diction.

[@tomhase7007]

@@baritonebynight That's the problem: You cannot just learn three languages in a few years. As for German, most of the subtleties and second meanings in spoken German are transported by vowel shading. I remember that a Chinese student once told Christian Gerhaher that there are ten different 'a'-sounds in Chines. His reply was: "How interesting, in German we have more than a hundred." Now, from the vowel shading of a native speaker you can get a whole lot of information about the speaker - from the mood the person is in, to their relation to you to the places in which the person grew up in. (Actually the police uses this extensively in forensic analysis to locate people.) The IPA does not even come close to transport these subtleties, but in Lieder singing these subtleties are the whole point. If you cannot do vowel shading you cannot do Lieder - and you can only start to study vowel shading *after* you are able to produce the core German vowel sounds correctly, which 99% of American singers cannot. From my experience in coaching American singers in Germany, it takes on average about 5 years of living in Germany to get the core vowels correctly and then another 10-15 years to get into vowel shading. Apart from that each language comes with a history and a culture, which also takes years to understand. I am sure that French and Italian are no less complex and take their 15-20 years to master as well for a non-native speaker. What American singers learn at college is to fake Italian, French and German very well, so that non-native speakers will not notive. To a native speakers' ears, however, this fake-German sounds very offensive, like an American making fun of our culture.

[@robertcentobene4375]

It got better and better each time! Perhaps the best I have heard!

[@albertoknox7673]

...selten jemanden erlebt, der sich solchermaßen auf den Lehrer einlassen kann. Großes Kompliment. Begnadete Sängerin!

[@liujunchen3464]

Wonderful!! It's a very helpful video!

[@syntax2600]

Goosebumps

[@buffel60]

Wonderful

[@albux]

Angela, you're a wonderful interpreter. Listening to you singing, I felt emotions I don't often experience. Zander's masterclasses oin the surface always seem kind of cheesy and pretentious but god damn do they work.

[@mbeatriz2350]

How old is she?

[@AntW11]

I understand encouraging the angst, but at the cost of the Voice in such a young singer?? Forcing the voice will lead to vocal damage. The young lady has a lovely voice. I hope she cares for it and it develops to the full potential.

[@VeronicaBellSoprano]

She took one of the most challenging songs in the entire vocal literature. It requires living a whole life in a matter of 3 minutes. This is not something one can sing when the technique is not quite there yet. And he is doing what he is there to do which is help with interpretation, not give vocal lesson.