Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
(1915-2006)
With the passing away of Elisabeth
Schwarzkopf at the age of almost 91, the musical world has
lost one of the most important and beloved voices of the mid-to-late
20th century. Olga Maria Elisabeth Frederike Schwarzkopf
was born on 9 December 1915 in Jarocin near Poznan in Poland but her parents and all four of her grandparents were Prussian. Her
father being a teacher meant in those days that the family
had to move several times: Liegnitz, Breslau, Magdeburg and in 1931 to Cottbus between Dresden and Berlin. By then
young Elisabeth already had a musical career in view, she was
a good pianist and her singing voice had developed to a high
light soprano. While still in Magdeburg she sang
a leading part in Gluck’s Orfeo
ed Euridice at a school performance. In 1933 the family
finally moved to Berlin and
there she applied for Die Staatliche Akademie Hochschule fur
Musik in Berlin and was accepted.
Her singing teacher became
Lula Mysz-Gmeiner, a famous mezzo-soprano, then in her late
50s, who was renowned for her Lieder singing, having herself
studied for Lili Lehmann and was admired by Brahms and Wolf.
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf admitted that she learnt a lot about
interpretation but the development of her voice went slowly,
since her teacher had decided that Elisabeth actually was a
mezzo-soprano. In 1937 she started taking lessons for Dr Egonolf,
who realised the true character of her voice and then she made
rapid progress.
After graduating the same year
she became a member of the Opera School of
the Hochschule and sang in a production of Brecht-Weill’s Der Jasager. She also joined the Favre
Solistenvereinigung, a semi-professional chorus that had been
engaged to take part in an opera recording, the now legendary Die
Zauberflöte conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham. His technical
assistant was a young man named Walter Legge, who was to become
possibly the most influential recording producer in years to
come and – even more important for the aspiring chorus soprano – her
husband.
Her real debut was in 1938
at Städtische Oper Berlin where she was one of the flower maidens
in Parsifal and after that followed a number of minor
parts until she got more prominent roles like Lauretta in Gianni
Schicchi and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos.
At this stage of her career she was still a light coloratura
soprano. After further studies
with the legendary Maria Ivogün she made her debut at the Vienna
State Opera, a house she belonged to as a permanent member
1944 – 1949. Now she was entrusted roles like Gilda, Violetta
and Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier. Her international break-through
came in 1947 when she visited Covent Garden as Donna Elvira
in Don Giovanni and during the 1950s she was the leading
Mozart soprano at Salzburg and elsewhere but she also sang
Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at Bayreuth under
von Karajan (also recorded and available on Naxos), she became the Strauss
soprano, singing Ariadne, the Countess in Capriccio and,
her probably greatest assumption, Die Feldmarschallin in Der
Rosenkavalier and she was Anne Truelove at the world premiere
of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress in Venice 1951.
In 1954 she took part in another world premiere, Walton’s Troilus
and Cressida, composed with her in mind. She sang at La
Scala and in the USA, where her belated MET debut took place in 1962 as Die Feldmarschallin.
Gradually she cut down on her opera appearances and finally
left the stage in Brussels 1972 but she continued to perform
Lieder, a field where she had no superiors and few equals.
Like all great artists also
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf had her detractors. Few could deny the
beauty of her voice, the purity of tone and the technical accomplishment,
but as the years passed there were those who meant that her
interpretations became too knowing, too detailed, too artificial,
that she went too far in characterisation and thus violating
the music’s natural flow. I have never felt that myself even
though I can understand the point, but far better that than
note-perfect but faceless singing. She never became uninteresting
and many are the songs and arias that I can’t listen to without
hearing Elisabeth Schwarzkopf’s inflexions and accents. I was
never lucky enough to hear her live but one of my earliest
opera experiences was the filmed Salzburg performance of Der Rosenkavalier which I saw during my military
service. The nobility of her appearance, the caressing of the
phrases made an unforgettable impression and possibly it was
this film that triggered my interest in opera, which has never
faded during the ensuing 45 years.
Her career as a recording artist
was long and rich. What is probably her earliest recording
is a selection of excerpts from Lehar’s operetta Paganini,
set down for Telefunken on 2 September 1939 – a remarkable
date in itself: the day after Germany’s attack on Poland and
the day before England’s and France’s declarations of war – where
her tenor partner was Rupert Glawitsch. A year later they recorded
a similar selection from Das Land des
Lächelns. Both selections can be found in the appendix
on the Naxos 2-disc set of the complete 1953
recording of Das Land des
Lächelns under Ackermann with Gedda, Kunz and Emmy
Loose as well as Schwarzkopf as Lisa. What is remarkable is
that the 23-year-old “beginner” already
shows the characteristics we associate with the mature singer:
her easily recognisable timbre and also the delicate phrasing.
It is of course evident that it is a young voice, but without
knowing the identity of the singer one could still predict
a glorious future. WW2 meant for Schwarzkopf, as for her whole
generation, that an international career was delayed by several
years, the years when she was at her first youthful blossoming,
but luckily she could start recording directly after the war
and there are some Mozart arias from 1946 and 1947, Krips and
von Karajan conducting, collected on a Preiser CD (93444) where
the greater part of the space is occupied by the Mozart LP
she recorded with Pritchard in 1952. This is certainly among
the most delicious Mozart singing ever captured by microphones.
She also recorded several complete Mozart operas: Le nozze
di Figaro with Karajan in the early 50s and a decade later
a stereo remake with Giulini, with whom she also did what is
by many regarded as the best ever Don Giovanni. She
also sang Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte twice, with Karajan
in 1955 and then in 1962 with Karl Böhm. Der Rosenkavalier with
again Karajan and the young Christa Ludwig as Octavian is another
classic, as is Capriccio under Sawallisch.
In the field
of operetta she was also especially successful. With Nicolai
Gedda and Erich Kunz she recorded Die lustige Witwe, Das
Land des Lächelns, Wienerblut, Eine Nacht in Venedig, Der Zigeunerbaron and Die
Fledermaus and there also was a stereo remake of Die
lustige Witwe with Lovro von Matacic conducting and Eberhard
Wächter a tremendous Danilo. Few recordings in my collection
have a more honoured place. And we shouldn’t forget her lovely
LP/CD with a delectable helping of various operetta arias.
In the field of song, hers
are two of the most recommendable recordings of Strauss’ Vier
letzte Lieder. The earliest, with Otto Ackermann, is probably
the best with her radiant voice so perfectly in tune with the
music and a completely natural delivery. The much later remake
with George Szell is still gloriously sung, not inappropriately
more autumnal in character and maybe a notch too – what the
detractors may call – knowing. Among orchestral recordings
Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn, also with Szell and
partnered by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, is also a desert island
disc, as is Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with the same
two singers and Otto Klemperer at the helm. In piano-Lieder
she mainly collaborated with Gerald Moore and Geoffrey Parsons
but also, in the beginning, with Edwin Fischer and that duo
among other things made an unforgettable Mozart LP. I have
lost count on all her song recordings but there is none that
can’t be recommended. Let me just mention a couple of personal
favourites: Brahms’ Deutsche Volkslieder, again with
Fischer-Dieskau and with Gerald Moore at the piano, is so lovely
and it seems obvious that the three musicians enjoy their music
making and inspire each other. Hugo Wolf was another special
favourite with Schwarzkopf and both the Spanish and Italian
Songbooks – with the same trio – are excellent examples of
the fairly late Schwarzkopf, lavishing all her consummate skill
on these miniatures.
It is sad that Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
is no longer among us and a whole musical world is mourning.
We can only be happy that she left such a rich recorded legacy
behind that will no doubt be listened to and admired as long
as there are people around who can appreciate high-quality
singing.
Göran Forsling
Much is being written
in the obituaries about Elisabeth
Schwarzkopf's contribution to song
and opera in general, but less about
her importance in Lieder. Indeed,
Schwarzkopf's most fundamental legacy
may be the way she changed the art
of Lieder. When she was young, Lieder
was frequently something opera singers
did as a sideline, however much they
may have enjoyed the genre. Of course
there were Lieder recitals - Schubert
cycles in the 1860s, for example.
And composers certainly believed that
Lieder was High Art. Schumann, for
example, felt that his songs were
as great as his symphonies. Hugo Wolf
treated poetry with almost religious
reverence, believing his music paid
it tribute. But for wider audiences,
such as on the radio, recitals were
mixed bags of arias, Lieder and extracts
from oratorios, Bach etc.
It's no coincidence that Schwarzkopf's
husband, Walter Legge, was involved
with Wolf circles from early on. It
was he who pioneered the recording
of Wolf songs, getting various artists
of the day to sing Wolf - whether
they were specialists or not - and
raising money for the recording project
by seeking subscriptions from song
enthusiasts. Indeed, it should be
mentioned that even then, in the mid-1930s,
a lot of the sponsorship came from
Japan. As soon as possible after the
end of the war, Legge was in Austria
and Germany, searching for singers
who appreciated his approach. He and
Schwarzkopf were a perfect musical
match: had they not found each other,
what might have happened? But the
fact is that Schwarzkopf instinctively
related to the idea that Lieder was
a refined and intellectual genre,
a distinctive art form with its own
values. She was the performer, and
he was the researcher, the inspirer
and the one who knew how to get music
across to the public.
Their enthusiasm for art song was
infectious: it was they who pioneered
recitals devoted entirely to art song,
who persuaded concert soloists, and
conductors, to play in public performance
with singers, who organised recordings,
and launched high profile concerts.
It was Legge and Schwarzkopf who pioneered
a text based, poetry led approach
to singing. Just compare the pre war
recordings to Schwarzkopf and Fischer
Dieskau's work in the 1950s and 1960s.
We now expect singing to be well nuanced,
well-informed, intuitive and intelligent.
The all-Wolf recital at the newly
opened Royal Festival Hall was a sell
out. Even today 3500 people at a concert
of Lieder would be a spectacular success.
And Wolf was relatively unknown in
those early post-war years. It was
Schwarzkopf who took Fischer-Dieskau
under her wing and helped nurture
his career; he sang with her at that
RFH recital. Later, the two of them
made the first hugely successful issue
of Mahler's Lieder, at a time when
Mahler was himself relatively under-appreciated.
Especially on the net, Schwarzkopf
attracted extreme hatred, often beyond
rational standards, and way out of
proportion to her youthful Nazi links.
But among people who knew her work,
and who had real experience in music,
she was accorded much more respect.
She was notorious for being hard on
her students, but she too was trained
that way, in more rigorous times.
Moreover, no one was more driven than
she herself. It was the pursuit of
excellence that motivated her. Of
course she was no touchy-feely person,
but that's no crime.
When she respected a student's willingness
to achieve the same high standards
she would give her all to them, especially
if they had the integrity she prized
above all.
Anne Ozorio
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