The American, Kenneth Lane, Wagnerian Romantischer Heldentenor in June 1995 presented an All-Wagner concert.

It is three years later, and Mr. Lane has returned to Carnegie Hall with another all-Wagner evening.

The first half of the concert was centered on but two operas, Tristan und Isolde and Rienzi. Since the third act of Tristan contains more tenor singing than is to be heard in many complete operas and constituted only a bit more than half of the first part of the concert, it is obvious that the advancing years have brought precious little curtailment of Mr. Lane's vocal stamina.

Mr. Lane's tenor is appropriately Wagnerian in both size and timbre, a very large, baritonally-centered, and some what burnished instrument with a carrying power many current tenors would kill for-one capable of negotiating top notes with ease.

Words mean a great deal in his view of things, and Mr. Lane's total dramatic commitment to both the music and texts was evident in every line he sang throughout the evening. Mr. Lane again performed the Wesendonck Lieder and he is still, to my knowledge, the only male singer ever to have done so.

While this remains an important and unique undertaking, it was Mr. Lane's scheduling of six early Lieder (1838-1840) to open the second half of the evening which assures this concert of a place in the record books, for this was cer tainly the first time these songs have been heard in a major concert hall in this country, and quite possibly the first time they have been heard in any concert hall venue in the century and one-half since they were composed.

Anyhow, these unfamiliar Lieder opened the second half of Mr. Lane's program and found him in fine vocal estate. Every one of the songs came as a surprise, for they are totally at odds with anything one might have expected from the man who gave us Brünnhilde's Immolation. The real highlight of these six songs, however, is "Schlafe, mein Kind," a lovely little lullaby.

As previously stated, Mr. Lane's voice is nothing if not stentorian, yet he managed to scale his dynamics down to an appropriate size to deliver a telling version of this Wiegenlied. Later on, as if to prove that this was no accident, he did it again, as an encore, and the results were even better. Certainly the audience loved it, both times.

It was the Wesendonck Lieder which officially closed the program and which found Mr. Lane in his best voice of the night. Mr. Lane could hardly be bettered in this endeavor by any tenor now before the public, and he achieved a certain delicacy in portions of several of the songs.

Mr. Lane's accompanist for the evening, David Brandon, was superb throughout, playing up a veritable bravura storm in the Tristan synthesis and drastically scaling down his accompaniments for the more lyrical and intimate moments encountered post intermission.

All in all, this was a highly enjoyable and important evening of music and Mr. Lane is to be congratulated for unearthing this new Wagner repertoire.

- JOE PEARCE, Secretary of Vocal Record Collectors' Society;
Contributor to Opera Quarterly

Kenneth Lane, a tenor with boundless enthusiasm for Wagner and his heroes, introduced at his recent Carnegie Hall recital a virtually unknown body of that composer's creative output in a group of early songs, gleanings of his remarkable talent, in particular a memorably tender "Lullaby." This premiere performance benefitted from the singer's sensitivity, insight, and superb diction.

-LAWRENCE F. HOLDRIDGE, Leading record collector, recordings' annotator, reviewer, radio commentator and publisher of The Record Auction of Amityville, New York, USA

In Manhattan, KENNETH LANE'S CDs are obtainable at Metropolitan Opera shops; Barnes & Noble, 33 E 17th St [Union Sq], 675 Sixth Av at 22nd St [Chelsea], & 160 E 54th St at 3rd Av [Citicorp]; Borders at 57th St & Park Av, & HMV at 34th St & B'way, Herald Square opposite Macy's, & 72nd St & B'way; Sam Goody's at East 42nd St & 2nd Av, & East 60th St & 3rd Av ; & at Tower Records. at 66th St & B'way.