Victor Maria von Sayn

A mystery tenor. The name, if it's his real name, hints to a member of the very highest German aristocracy: the Sayn-Wittgenstein family with its various branches proliferated in Prussia, Russia, Bavaria and Austria, and everywhere, they belonged to the creme de la creme. Maria as a (second) male Christian name is another hint to nobility, or at least to a very, very traditional family, and so is Victor (instead of Viktor). Let me stress that the name could of course be a pseudonym; but if it's real, it would suffice as an explanation why the above disc is all we know about Victor Maria von Sayn, and why it can be excluded that under that name, anybody ever made anything faintly resembling a singing career. An actual Victor Maria von Sayn would have had to be a socialite with a tenor voice; an amateur singer, for whom it would already be unusual enough that he ever graced a recording studio.

Many thanks to Anton Bieber for the recordings and label scans.