Thomas Quasthoff-The Jazz Album: Watch What Happens

Thomas Quasthoff-The Jazz Album: Watch What Happens. Thomas Quasthoff, baritone; Till Brönner, trumpet; Alan Broadbent, piano; Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; Nan Schwartz, conductor.

Gershwin: "There's a Boat that's Leavin' Soon for New York," (Porgy and Bess). "They All Laughed." Blake: "Watch What Happens." Fain: "Secret Love." Wonder: "You and I." Arlen-Mercer: "Ac-centtchu-ate the Positive." Lerner/Loewe: "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" (My Fair Lady). Cunningham-Lang: "Can't We Be Friends." Chaplin: "Smile." Rodgers-Hart: "My Funny Valentine" (Babes in Arms). Legrand-Bergman: "What are you doing for the rest of your life?" Ellington: "In my Solitude."

No baritone has come close to eclipsing the staggering legacy of Fischer-Dieskau in singing lieder, but if there is a current singer who approaches him in artistic depth and breadth, it is Thomas Quasthoff. The two singers share a similar technical mastery, which in turn allows their rich interpretive instincts to take flight. There is also a similar sense of humanity in their singing beyond the jaw-dropping beauty of the sound itself. Above all, both baritones are consummate communicators who bring texts vibrantly to life by fully inhabiting them in a way that few singers ever have.

One of the sharpest distinctions between the two artists is that Fischer-Dieskau sang publicly for half a century with scarcely a hint of interest in anything remotely resembling popular music. Conversely, Quasthoff always has had considerable affection and affinity for popular music and jazz and has begun to weave it into his professional life with great success. The first hint most Americans had of this side to Quasthoff came in a YouTube video of the baritone doing some spectacular scat singing at a club somewhere in Germany. For the singer's many admirers who knew him only for his heartbreaking performance of Schubert's Winterreise and the like, this was an astonishing revelation. This is one reason why there has been such anticipation surrounding the release of The...