Albert Schott

Albert Schott's records are among the greatest rarities, and a good example that in many cases, records are scarce because people at the time didn't buy them for very, very good reason; they probably knew Albert Schott, and would not even have accepted one of his records as a gift, let alone pay money for it.

Information on Albert Schott is almost as scarce as his records: what you can find everywhere is that he was Anton Schott's nephew, and that's about it. (Anton Schott was one of the most famous German heldentenors of the 1870s and 1880s, an internationally acclaimed Rienzi and Lohengrin.) Kutsch & Riemens further report that Albert Schott made his debut in a concert with his uncle in Düsseldorf; Anton Schott was known as haughty, but he must have been clement when it came to his relatives, or he would hardly have shared a podium with his wayward nephew. From 1891, according to Kutsch & Riemens, Albert Schott sang in Dortmund, then in Kiel and in Trier, and until 1905, he made guest appearances in Metz and Nürnberg.

Now admittedly, his recordings are from 1911 or 1912, but the voice is not worn; it just seems to have been never trained. His German diction is another mystery: it's positively incredible, and it's too weird to be dialectal – there's something non-German in it, and that may coincide with the rather surprising indication on his record labels "Herr Albert Schott, Heldentenor, Washington". Actually, the way he sings "du" or "Ruh'" could be fault of an English accent; on the other hand, his "ü" seems native German and definitely non-English. A bilingual kid, e.g. raised by German (or half-German, half-American) parents in Washington? Anyway, a serious contender for the title of a male Florence Foster-Jenkins!

Lohengrin soundfile source: SLUB Dresden
Many thanks to Anton Bieber for the ultra-rare Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh' recording plus label scan.