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Post by tonyloco on Nov 14, 2017 17:01:01 GMT
Hard for me to add anything but I like her in Falstaff with Gobbi and Moffo/Karajan, EMI. Surely Legge? My favourites are the Rosenkavalier and Hansel and Gretel. Some Christmas present ideas being added to my list! Hello Mr Snow. Come in and join the party: we're having a barvellous time! This is exactly how Walter Legge always pronounced the word 'marvellous' with a very explosive 'bah' as the first syllable. If I remember rightly, Karajan always rated the Hansel and Gretel highly and of course Elisabeth Grümmer was another of those wonderful sopranos with the distinctive voices who sang Mozart and Richard Strauss, and like most of the others was also champion at the Wagner lyric roles. I heard her once as a terrific Elsa in Lohengrin with Astrid Varnay as Ortrud . It was a visiting company from eithger Hamburg or Frankfurt at Roseberry Avenue and Varnay's outburst in Act 2 raised the roof and everybody shouted 'bravo', which I think is the only time I have ever heard any Wagner opera interrupted mid-act in that way. And nobody went 'shush' because everybody in the whole audience was yelling! The Karajan Falstaff is another Legge triumph. I find that with both the Karajan and the Toscanini recordings it is fatal to start listening because you will not be able to stop until you get to the end of that magical, mercurial score. I know Bryn is good at it, but so were Tito Gobbi and Geraint Evans in the splendid Zeffirelli production in the 1960s. And we generally had luxury casting of the delicious Mirella Freni and Luigi Alva as the young lovers and the very camp Regina Resnik hilarious as Mistress Quickly. Mistress Ford varied but Ilva Ligabue was the best. Gobbi was Verdi's Falstaff and Evans was Shakespeare's. The recording was made in JUne 1956 so that was definitely one that Legge would have recorded in mono and the long suffering stereo engineer would have scrambled around to get a stereo version from his own set of tapes, but I am not aware that this posed the same amount of problems as Rosenkavalier did. Any more gems forgotten?
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Post by tonyloco on Nov 14, 2017 20:50:05 GMT
Oh, one important detail that I forgot. After Legge died, Elisabeth organised a memorial concert at St James's Church, Piccadilly, where Sviatoslav Richter played a programme of Schubert Sonatas. It was very eerie as Richter arranged his usual set-up which was to have the whole church in darkness apart from a banker's lamp with a green shade above the keyboard. It was a very strange experience and I can't remember whether there was any applause. I thought Richter was an odd choice because I don't think Legge ever worked with Richter although he tried to get him as a Columbia artist when he first appeared outside Russia but David Bicknell managed to keep Richter away from Legge and he became an HMV artist. Further details of EMI's relationship with Richter and told in Peter Andry's book 'Inside the Recording Studio'.
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Post by tmesis on Nov 17, 2017 11:49:50 GMT
Favourite Schwarzkopf recital/collection CDs
Mozart: Lieder and Concert Arias (Szell LSO, Gieseking) Opera Arias (Karajan, Kripps, Prithchard)
Schubert: Lieder (Edwin Fischer)
R. Strauss: Songs, inc Four Last Songs (LSO, Berlin RS/Szell)
Wolf: Spanish Song book (with F.Dieskau and G. Moore) not Legge! DG release.
Elizabeth Schwarzkopf: The Christmas Album (literally as camp as Christmas but I love it)
My two absolute favourites are:
Elizabeth Schwarzkopf Sings Operetta - I could, and do, play this forever. The care and artistry she lavishes on these songs make other great singers who try them seem like amateurs. Highlights are the final note in 'Chambre separee,' her campest ever performance in the 'Nun's Chorus' and 'Wien, du Stadt Meitner Traume' which she sings with exquisite rubato, is the highlight of the disc and no one has bettered.
Encores - this is just an amazing collection of what Beecham would have called lollipops. They are mainly lieder items accompanied by Gerald Moore and Geoffrey Parsons. The highlight for me is an ethereally pure version of Londonderry Air recorded in 1958.
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Post by tonyloco on Nov 17, 2017 12:38:19 GMT
Yes, tmesis, that's a good list. I have previously said that I would not offer a list of Schwarzkopf favourites of my own but I did admit that the Operetta recital has given me much pleasure over the years. She manages to be exquisitely stylish and very camp at the same time in a way that is totally irresistable – and pretty much unique to her. EMI's German colleagues maintained that this was all just too Viennese (Schlagobers and such) and the German record buyers preferred the more straightforward style of Anneliese Rothenberger in that repertoire, which is why they made local recordings of many of the German and Hungarian and Austrian operettas using Anneliese with Rudolf Schock and then Nicolai Gedda as the principal male star. But I digress.
What makes you think the Wolf Spanish Songbook with DFD on DGG is not Legge? It certainly is. This is confirmed in both the complete Legge discography and Schwarzkopf's 'A Career on Record'. As far as I know, after the war, Legge produced all of Elisabeth's recordings except the ones I have already mentioned, namely the 'Contes d'Hoffmann' and the Klemperer 'Zauberflöte'.
The Christmas album with Mackerras is a funny one. She says in 'A Career on Record' that she was not happy with the duet she sings with herself on 'Silent Night' and that it was omitted from later reissues. This is not entirely correct. It is true that the EMI engineers were not aware of the doubling track when they first remastered the album for CD but I made sure that it was re-instated for subsequent use in things like the Schwarzkopf ICON box.
And, while still not admitting to favourites, there is something quite wonderful about the original LP of the Strauss Songs with Szell and the Berlin orchestra, including a glorious portrait of Dame Elisabeth on the front cover. The subsequent CD compilation of the Berlin and LSO Strauss orchestral songs is also a fine collection but in awarding my personal Grammy I think I would give it just to the original Berlin LP as being VERY special.
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Post by tonyloco on Nov 17, 2017 12:49:48 GMT
PS. Did you know that Klemperer always addressed Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as "Herr Fiskau" which the very serious German baritone failed to find amusing, which is probably why Klemperer kept on doing it!
Oh, and I always laugh when I remember how Klemperer would pester Peter Andry to set up the recording of 'Così fan tutte' that he wanted to do to complete the Da Ponte Mozart operas and he would say: 'Herr Andry, if you don't record 'Così fan tutte' with me soon it will be a posthumous recording!'
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Post by tmesis on Nov 17, 2017 13:00:40 GMT
Interesting that you say tonyloco that the DG Wolf CD is a Legge production. I did not consult my copies of the reference books you mention but just looked at the double CD. On this there is no mention of Walter. It says, recording producer: Rainer Brock/Hans Ritter!
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Post by tonyloco on Nov 17, 2017 13:16:00 GMT
Interesting that you say tonyloco that the DG Wolf CD is a Legge production. I did not consult my copies of the reference books you mention but just looked at the double CD. On this there is no mention of Walter. It says, recording producer: Rainer Brock/Hans Ritter! That's naughty of DGG to omit Legge's name from the CD reissue. I wonder whether it appeared on the original LP sleeve? He would certainly have been present at the sessions and behaving as if he were the sole producer, and indeed Fischer-Dieskau in his days at EMI was usually a Legge artist too even though he was on HMV. Well, we will never know now why Walter's name is not there on the CD. Something else for Elisabeth to complain about!
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Post by tmesis on Nov 17, 2017 18:54:33 GMT
I too tonyloco find the original vinyl release of the Four Last Songs, with a really judicious choice of other marvellous Strauss songs, to be one of her most 'complete' records. The orchestra is absolutely gorgeous under Szell and the recorded sound is the best ever on an ES release. You also mentioned the cover. I never saw Schwarzkopf live but she must rank as one of the most beautiful ever opera singers. She has that classy aristocratic look that is so right for roles like the Marschallin and the Countess in Figaro. She was still beautiful in her 70s and 80s when she gave her terrifyingly exacting master classes. I do feel a bit ungentlemanly mentioning this, but didn't she have slightly 'gappy' front teeth, so that she was always photographed with mouth firmly shut?
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Post by tonyloco on Nov 17, 2017 22:35:21 GMT
I do feel a bit ungentlemanly mentioning this, but didn't she have slightly 'gappy' front teeth, so that she was always photographed wi I do feel a bit ungentlemanly mentioning this, but didn't she have slightly 'gappy' front teeth, so that she was always photographed with mouth firmly shut? Yes, the gap in Elisabeth's teeth is clearly visible in the original of this photo but is hard to see in the avatar. Believe me, it is definitely there.
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Post by tonyloco on Nov 17, 2017 22:45:03 GMT
I meant to say also that it was a great treat to attend one of Schwarzkopf's solo recitals at the Festival Hall, not only to hear her sing but to look at her hair, make up and dresses. She usually changed in the interval and she always looked fabulous. The Gerald Moore Farewell Concert was a particularly special occasion because we had both Schwarzkopf and De Los Angeles to look at on the stage – and Herr Fiskau, of course! If I remember rightly, the last solo recital Elisabeth gave in London was at the Wigmore Hall and you can imagine how that acoustic flattered her voice. She sang mezzo-forte most of the time but on the odd occasion when she opened up it sounded like she could have sung Brünnhilde. Very clever!
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Post by tmesis on Nov 18, 2017 7:38:01 GMT
I love your current Schwarzkopf avatar Tony. It shows her magnificent bone structure and, on a more frivolous note, she appears to wearing Nipper as a hat! 'Does anyone still wear a hat?...'
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Post by tonyloco on Nov 18, 2017 10:55:38 GMT
Yes, you are right about the Nipper hat. And very chic it looks! Because I am using ancient computer hardware and software I cannot post iimages except in my avatar but I intend to try putting some up on my iPhone when I have the time and the energy, so watch this space, but don’t hold your breath.
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Post by tonyloco on Nov 18, 2017 13:26:34 GMT
It looks as if I can’t attach images to my posts on my iPhone. Oh well. I will keep looking for ways to start a gallery in due course.
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Post by tonyloco on Nov 18, 2017 15:55:45 GMT
But my avatar now shows Dame Elisabeth's fine facial bone structure AND the gap in her teeth!
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Post by tenorandy on Nov 18, 2017 17:02:59 GMT
Hi I am really very interested to see this discussion about Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Walter Legge. Thank you for your insights and anecdotes Tonyloco. Although it is regretable that we don't have Callas singing soprano in the Verdi Requiem at all on disc ( particularly in 1954 when in her prime) I feel that Schwarzkopf is exemplary- luminous in tone and apt in expression.
What might have been an interesting and surely marketable disc would have been to have Schwarzkopf tackling the soprano line and Callas as the mezzo ( she did encompass much mezzo material in her recording career.) However I am pretty sure that in 1954 when she was still singing Lucias and I Puritani Elvira she would never have considered such a step as she was focused on keeping those high Ds and Ebs - but maybe in the 1960s when critics were already saying that the tessitura of her voice was getting lower and her concert repertoire was taking on a mezzo tinge ? A good comparison would be the Edinburgh Festival performance where Margaret Price sang Soprano and Jessye Norman Mezzo, although both renowned as sopranos. Anyway , just a thought...
In terms of Schwarzkopf's Nazi connections I found the comment by critic Bernard Levin to be of interest in this matter when he said ' Her singing represented anything but the Nazi jackboot.' She was certainly disingenuous about her party membership. However we learn that she spent at least 1 year of the war in a sanatorium suffering from a severe chest ailment , perhaps TB.
It is also possible that when first attempting to join the Vienna State Opera and leave the Deutsche Oper Goebbels stopped her - although she managed to do so later on. It seems it was quite common for singers trying to distance themselves a little from the Ministry of propaganda to attempt to find a contract outside of Germany.
Goebbels used her in propaganda films and this surely hasn't helped her reputation. What consequences would there have been if she had refused to take part I wonder? Context is important - this is the young woman who was not allowed to attend medical school as her father had been barred as a schoolteacher for refusing to host a Nazi meeting at his school apparently. Also she had spent student years in an education system where the state discouraged disobedience to the aims of the Fuhrer.
I can fully empathise with any writer / researcher whose family or friends were caught up in the obscene hell the Nazis created and with a desire to see justice done retroactively.
I do wonder however if the perpetual attempts to out her as some sort of supreme masquerading Nazi monster which seemed to mark the final years of her life somehow obscured the bigger picture . Isn't it likely that there were other musicians working in the Reich who were more vehemently Nazi and who did much worse things than Schwarzkopf ever did, yet they were not pursued at all or punished in any way? What did she do or was proven that marked her out as particularly bad ? That is what I am interested to know.
Her recordings stand as a testimony to her artistry and thanks were due to all those involved in capturing them.
These are just a few thoughts , questions really and I welcome any comments in return. To end an anecdote which reflects how exacting Legge and Schwarzkopf could be. A French singing colleague told me years ago about the time when the couple came to give masterclasses in Paris . They auditioned lots of hopefuls, some who had travelled far, in the hope of participating , but cancelled the classes and left immediately declaring that no - one was of a suitable standard for them to work with. Not one! On the other Schwarzkopf alone was absolutely fantastic to the young singers she did nurture- lots of stories of her kindness and generosity both in terms of giving time and financial support.
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Post by tmesis on Nov 18, 2017 17:34:21 GMT
Nice to have you on board tenorandy. A Callas/Schwarzkopf Verdi Requiem would have been very tantalising.
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Post by Dawnstar on Nov 18, 2017 20:26:47 GMT
I do wonder however if the perpetual attempts to out her as some sort of supreme masquerading Nazi monster which seemed to mark the final years of her life somehow obscured the bigger picture . Isn't it likely that there were other musicians working in the Reich who were more vehemently Nazi and who did much worse things than Schwarzkopf ever did, yet they were not pursued at all or punished in any way? What did she do or was proven that marked her out as particularly bad ? That is what I am interested to know. Yes, I've thought that before. Why is it she seems to be singled out for criticism when there were thousands of opera singers who likewise had singing careers during the Reich? Is it just because she had one of the most succesful international careers after the war? Other sopranos who have already been mentioned on this thread - Grummer, Seefried, Jurinac - were singing at the Wiener Staatsoper in the 1940s like Schwarzkopf yet none of them seem to get the criticism she does.
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Post by tonyloco on Nov 19, 2017 6:05:43 GMT
Hi Folks, I think my PC has finally died and I find it very difficult to use TheatreBoard on my iPhone. I may try using an internet café if I can find one but otherwise, to paraphrase Oates, I am going off the air. I may be some time until I get a replacement. TL
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Post by tonyloco on Nov 19, 2017 15:56:14 GMT
Hi folks again, My computer seems to be in temporary partial remission so I will continue as usual until it stoips again.
Firstly, hello tenorandy. In reply to what you and Dawnstar have said about Schwarzkopf's Nazi connections, we will never know the truth of all that, and I think it is on record that ES changed her story explaining some of it. And there may also be something of the 'tall poppy' syndrome in the fact that she came in for quite a lot of criticism later in her life, but she and Walter did rather place themselves high when it came to their reputation and achievements. One might say artistically this was fully justified but criticism of ES's Nazi past is on a par with the fact that after Legge left EMI he received not one sniff of interest from any other record company nor any of the classical music festivals. I get the feeling that they were both being punished for having achieved so much BUT neither of them was actually a particularly nice person! Well, it's a thought, anyway.
Coming now to Callas and the Verdi Requiem, in the note that I wrote in 2007 for the EMI Maria Callas Complete Studio Recordings box and provided a slightly revised version in 2014 for the remastered set, I said about the Giulini recording:
"Callas believed that the company, through Legge,had promised the soprano role in this work to her, but Legge was now going ahead with the recording with his wife Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, in that part. Ideally, what Legge would really have liked would have been for Callas to sing the mezzo-soprano role, but that proposal was even more offensive to Callas (who always maintained that she was a soprano) than to be dropped from the project altogether."
I cannot now remember where I got that last sentence from. It is not in 'On and Off the Record' and I imagine that I found something in the Callas files in the EMI Archives. I am sure I didn't make it up (or did I?) but it's a pity I didn't cite a reference.
Interestingly, one whole side of the original 'Callas a Paris' LP consists of arias normally sung by a mezzo-soprano (Carmen, Delilah, Alceste, etc) but I remember the original LP sleeve notes talked about this repertoire being the domain of a particular kind of French singer known as a 'falcon' which was meant to be a kind of dramatic soprano with a strong middle register, thus implying that Callas was still a soprano!
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