Munich
Soon after arrival at Munich in 1913, where Bruno Walter (from Vienna) had succeeded Mottl, Erb appeared as Loge in Das Rheingold. He completely rethought the part, dispensing with Briesemeister's flaming and dancing impersonation. Walter realised he was a thinking artist, and the Press had 'not seen such a Loge since Bayreuth'. He sang this role (his 42nd) for 12 years at the Munich Festivals. In a September 1913 double-bill Caruso sang Canio at Munich but left Turiddu to Erb. He now sang Erik, Tannhäuser, Loge, Pinkerton and Cavaradossi. His dramatic skills were admired as Achilles in Gluck's Iphigeneia in Aulis, and he sang Graf Adolar in Weber's Euryanthe. In 1914, when Parsifal was first freely given in Germany, he was the first Munich Parsifal, bringing spiritual and religious insight.
He was already singing Strauss's Bacchus and Naraboth, and Pfitzner's Arme Heinrich. Bruno Walter brought Hugo Wolf's Der Corregidor to Munich Festival for him, at some expense, and Erb became completely, almost exclusively associated with it. The theatre valued his growing dramatic power and insight, and he relished such works as Franz Schreker's Der ferne Klang and (later) Die Gezeichneten.
During the War the work of the theatre was reduced, and restricted to German and Italian music. In summer 1916, he travelled with the Stuttgart Theatre ensemble to France and Belgium to sing and play to the German troops. He encountered Ravensburger soldiers at Lille. In Brussels, after a concert, an officer gave him his gold finger-ring as the token of homage to his art, from him, an unknown soldier returning to the front who should perhaps be dead tomorrow. Erb wore it until the outbreak of the second war.
St Matthew Passion
In 1914 Bruno Walter persuaded Erb that he should sing the Evangelist in Bach's St Matthew Passion. His first performance was at the Munich Odeon, March 28, 1915, with Paul Bender as Jesus. In that period he was learning the Pfitzner, Wolf and Schreker roles, and (by his own account) increasingly sought to develop the emotional, spiritual and intellectual depth of his interpretations. He sank his whole artistic personality into the Evangelist, reading what Albert Schweitzer and Heuser had written.
In 1915 Paul Ehlers thought him the finest Evangelist since Heinrich Vogl. A 1916 Cologne performance won extravagant praise, and wonder at his versatility, from Hermann Abendroth, and from the press. The poet Romain Rolland heard 10 March 1916 performance at Basel Minster under Herman Suter (with Maria Philippi) and extolled it, and soon Amsterdam also recognised a new genius.
Pfitzner's Palestrina
Munich's greatest wartime artistic project was the premiere of Hans Pfitzner's Palestrina in 1917. Erb created the title role, with Maria Ivogün as Ighino. Fritz Feinhals and Felix Brodersen also sang and Walter conducted. The Swiss took the whole show with the Munich ensemble, in midst of war, to Basel, Berne and Zürich. Thomas Mann, who had seen Erb's St Matthew Passion, described how he completely grasped the spiritual meaning of Palestrina, and Pfitzner felt he had found his ideal interpreter. (Ivogün had come to Munich in Walter's troupe in 1913, and in 1916 she and Erb realised they were in love, during a performance of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Der Ring des Polykrates.)
Erb always wanted to sing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart roles, but it was during rehearsals for a Schreker work that he suddenly had to stand in as Belmonte in Die Entfuhrung. Erb was a very great Mozartian singer, and thereafter he played many roles, including Octavio, Belfiore, Tamino and Ferrando, as well as Belmonte. In 1918, shortly before the end of the war, the King of Bavaria bestowed on Erb (the last) title Königlich Bayerische Kammersänger. During the Rhine occupation early in 1919 Erb was touring the Rhine towns and in Holland with St Matthew Passion. He was held up, returning, at Ingolstadt, and the Munich revolution had settled by the time of his return there.
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