SINGER BIOGRAPHIES

ALDA, FRANCES [so] (Christchurch, 1879 – Venice, 1952) lda was born Fanny Jane Davis. Her mother was an aspiring singer and her aunt was the well-known soprano, Frances Saville. After the premature death of her mother in 1885, Alda was sent to Melbourne, Australia to live with her maternal grandparents. Aspiring to an operatic career, she left Australia at twenty-two, first traveling to London, and then Paris, where she studied for ten months with Mathilde Marchesi who suggested Alda as a stage name. In 1904, she made her debut at the Opéra-Comique as Manon, followed by appearances at Covent Garden and La Scala. She debuted at the Metropolitan Opera on 7 December 1908 as Gilda and was one of the company’s leading stars for more than twenty years. In 1910, Alda married Giulio Gatti-Casazza, the Met’s general manager, a union that endured until 1929, the year of her retirement from the operatic stage. Alda continued to give concerts, and was a frequent guest on U.S. radio programs. Her acerbic commentary on other singers peppers the pages of her memoir, Men, Women and Tenors (1937) which makes fascinating reading. Alda possessed an expressive lyric voice and was primarily known as an opera singer. She made a large number of records exclusively for the Victor Company beginning in 1909 through the end of her operatic career.

ANDAY, ROSETTE [ms] (Budapest, 1903 – Vienna, 1977) nday studied singing at the Budapest Conservatory, also taking violin lessons with the great Hungarian virtuoso, Jeno˝ Hubay. Franz Schalk, the director of the Vienna Staatsoper heard Anday sing in Budapest and engaged her to sing Carmen at his theater in 1921 at the age of eighteen. Reviews were excellent and in the following years Anday became a leading mezzo-soprano at that house. There, she sang major Italian and French roles as well as Wagnerian parts such as Brangäne, Erda, Fricka, and Waltraute. Richard Strauss was immediately impressed with her singing, and during her first season in Vienna he accompanied her in her first recital given at the Große Musikvereinssaal. Later she was to have great success as Klytaemnestra in Strauss’s Elektra. Before the war, she sang in Berlin, Paris, London, and at the Salzburg Festival. She performed Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde in Paris with Oskar Fried conducting, and the same work in London under Bruno Walter. During the Nazi occupation of Austria she was banned from the stage, but after the war she resumed her career singing Lieder recitals and participating in oratorio performances. In 1961, Anday celebrated the 40^th anniversary of her debut at the Vienna Staatsoper as Klytemnestra, which was also her operatic farewell. Her earliest records were acoustic Vox discs including three with Erich Korngold (1897-1957) at the piano. She later made electric records for Polydor and HMV.

ANDERS, PETER [te] (Essen, 1908 – Hamburg, 1954) eter Anders first studied singing at the Berlin Academy of Music with Ernst Grenzebach, and later took private lessons from the well-known mezzo-soprano, Lula Mysz-Gmeiner, whose daughter he married. Anders’s debut took place in Heidelberg in 1932 as Jaquino in Fidelio. He subsequently sang at the theaters of Darmstadt, Cologne, and Hanover. Between 1937 and 1940, he sang at the Munich State Opera, where he appeared in the premiere of Richard Strauss’s Friedenstag. He finally settled at the Berlin State Opera in 1940, singing lyric roles and remaining until 1948. After the war he made many guest appearances throughout Europe. In 1948, he joined the Hamburg Opera moving toward heavier roles such as Florestan, Lohengrin, Siegmund, Radamès, Otello, and Bacchus in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos. He frequently was heard on German Radio and sang numerous concerts of Lieder and oratorio. Anders made 78 rpm records for Telefunken and HMV, and LPs for DGG. He died in a car accident at the height of his career.

ANSELMI, GIUSEPPE [te] (near Catania, Italy 1876 – near Rapallo, Italy, 1929) ntering the Naples Conservatory at the age of twelve, Anselmi studied piano, violin, and composition, but did not undertake vocal training at that time. A few years later he studied singing with conductor Luigi Mancinelli and sang major tenor roles with a touring company in Athens, Istanbul, and Alexandria. In 1900, he sang in Mascagni’s Le maschere at the San Carlo in Naples. The following year he made his Covent Garden debut as the Duke in Rigoletto to tepid reviews, but returned there often during his career. He was said to be a fine actor, with his tall and handsome physique, giving him matinee idol status in Russia, South America, and Spain, where he sang major lyric roles. The First World War seemed to have cut his career short and by 1918 he had retired. He then spent his time teaching and composing until his early death from pneumonia. From 1907 to 1911, Anselmi was a frequent visitor to the Fonotipia studios, making over one hundred sides. The song heard here is one of the two Richard Strauss songs that he recorded, the other being “Morgen!”. His only non-Fonotipia recordings were a few Edison Diamond Disc sides made in London in 1913.

ARKANDY, KATHERINE [so] (Ramsgate, England, 1898 – Monaco, 1991) orn as Kate Arkend to Latvian parents, she became an opera singer and changed her name to Katherine Arkandy. A musical prodigy in Hungary, she toured at the age of ten. Her operatic debut took place at the Budapest National Opera in 1918. She remained there until 1921 when she joined the Munich State Opera replacing the noted Maria Ivogün in coloratura roles. Arkandy remained with the company until 1925. She moved to England permanently in 1927, having already performed at Covent Garden in 1919. She later appeared in a performance of Massenet’s Thaïs starring Maria Jeritza. She gave many concerts in England and appeared frequently on the BBC. Arkandy made acoustic discs for Polydor and a few electric discs for HMV. Her recording of Strauss’s “Amor” is her only recording of a Strauss song. Her daughter was the well-known actress, Maxine Audley (1923-1992).

AUSTRAL, FLORENCE [so] (Richmond, near Melbourne, Australia 1892 – Newcastle, Australia 1968) lorence Austral was born Mary Wilson, the daughter of a Swedish carpenter, William Wilson (formerly William Lindholm) and his dressmaker-wife, Helena Mary Harris. Austral’s father died when Mary was quite young, and she first sang publicly as Fawaz, the surname of her stepfather. She studied at the Melbourne University Conservatorium with Elise Wiedermann, then in New York with Gabriele Sibella, and finally at the London School of Opera with Hermann Grunebaum. Under the name of Florence Austral, she made her London debut in 1922 as Brünnhilde in Die Walküre at Covent Garden with the British National Opera Company, and soon became the leading Wagnerian soprano in the United Kingdom. Between 1925 and 1935, she made annual concert tours of the USA, appearing on the operatic stages of Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Chicago. She continued to perform operatic roles in London until 1940. She married the Australian flutist John Amadio, and after World War II she retired to Australia where she taught at the Newcastle Conservatorium in New South Wales. Gifted with a brilliant and loud soprano voice, Austral was particularly effective in dramatic German roles. She made 155 recordings between 1922 and 1940, all for HMV. She made only two recordings of Strauss songs.

BERGER, ERNA [so] (Cossebaude, Germany 1900 – Essen, Germany 1990) rna Berger spent some of her childhood years in Paraguay, where her parents had immigrated. Working as a clerk and piano teacher, she earned enough money to return to Germany in 1924. She finally studied singing in Dresden with Melitta Hirzel and made her debut there at the Dresden State Opera in 1925 as one of the three boys in Die Zauberflöte. In 1930, she sang in Wagner’s Tannhäuser at Bayreuth. She also sang regularly at Salzburg. In 1934, she joined the Berlin State Opera where she was admired for over twenty years. She appeared at the Metropolitan Opera from 1949 through 1951, while concertizing all over the world, including Australia and Japan. She retired from the stage at age sixty, but taught for many years in Hamburg and Essen. Numerous recordings of her remarkably clear and youthful voice have given her legendary status as Queen of the Night, and secured her place among the great Lieder singers of Schubert and Strauss.

BETTENDORF, EMMY [so] (Frankfurt, 1895 – Berlin, 1963) mmy Bettendorf studied in Frankfurt and made her debut at the opera there in 1914. She joined the Schwerin company in 1916 and performed there until 1920, when she was approached by Parlophon to make recordings. Bettendorf’s voice proved to be exceptionally phonogenic and she continued recording until the mid 1930s. She was a member of the Berlin Staatsoper from 1920-1924. The great Bruno Walter convinced her to join the Städtischen Oper Berlin and she remained at that house until 1928. After leaving Berlin, she joined Cornelius Bronsgeest’s opera troupe in Holland and made guest appearances in Barcelona, Madrid, and in Germany. She devoted the rest of her career to concerts and recordings. She refused to join the Nazi party, which lead to her retirement from the stage in 1934, but she did do tours for the troops. She later taught at the Berliner Musikhochschule until 1952. Besides her numerous acoustic and electric recordings for Parlophon/Odeon, she also made acoustic discs for Vox and Polydor.

BISPHAM, DAVID [ba] (Philadelphia, 1857 – New York City, 1921) avid Bispham received no formal musical training, but sang in church choirs as an amateur. At age twenty-eight, he went to Europe and studied singing first in Florence and Milan, and then at Bayreuth. After learning several of the baritone Wagnerian roles, he debuted at Covent Garden in 1892 as Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde, conducted by Gustav Mahler. He was given a contract for that house, and sang primarily Wagnerian parts there until 1902. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger in 1896, singing mostly Wagnerian roles there as well until 1903. During these years, Bispham also gave concerts of American songs and German Lieder. He believed strongly that songs should be sung in the language of the audience, and was noted for his renditions of German Lieder in English translation. After 1903, Bispham devoted most of his professional time to the concert platform. His memoir, A Quaker Singer’s Recollections, was published in 1920. Bispham’s earliest records (all extremely scarce) were made between 1902 and 1904 for G&T. He also made a sizable number of American Columbia discs, and a few American Pathé discs at the end of his career.

BJÖRLING, JUSSI [te] (Borlänge, Sweden 1911 – Siarö, Sweden, 1960) ndoubtedly one of the most important tenors of his era and one of the outstanding voices of the twentieth century, Jussi Björling received his earliest vocal training from his father David, a tenor and singing teacher. Jussi’s two brothers, Olle and Gösta, also sang from an early age, and the three boys and their father formed a quartet. They began touring Sweden in 1915 when Jussi was four, and toured the United States in 1919 through 1921, where the quartet made six recordings for the Columbia label. Björling began formal vocal study at the Stockholm Conservatory in 1928, making his first solo recordings the following year for His Master’s Voice. His operatic debut was in 1930 at the Royal Swedish Opera, where he was on the roster until 1939. He continued to sing there frequently as a guest artist until his death. He made his American debut in a Carnegie Hall concert in 1937, followed a year later by his Metropolitan Opera debut as Rodolfo in La bohème. In 1939 Björling sang in a performance of Verdi’s Requiem under Arturo Toscanini in Lucerne, and in November 1940, he sang it in Carnegie Hall for an NBC broadcast, again conducted by Toscanini. The following month he sang in Beethoven’s Missa solemnis under Toscanini and the NBC Symphony. He returned to Sweden in 1941, remaining there until the end of the war. During the war years he made appearances in Berlin, Budapest, and Florence. From 1945 until the year of his death, he sang throughout Europe and across the United States in numerous opera and concert appearances.

DERMOTA, ANTON [te] (Kropa, Slovenia, 1910 – Vienna, 1989) nton Dermota first studied organ and composition at the Ljubljana Conservatory, and then went to Vienna in 1934 to begin vocal training with Marie Rado. He made his debut at the Vienna State Opera in 1936 as First Man in Armor in Die Zauberflöte and was immediately offered a contract there. His first important role was Alfredo in La traviata, 1937, and he remained with the company for over forty years. He appeared regularly at Salzburg beginning in 1937, and his international reputation took him to opera houses and concert stages worldwide. He was highly regarded as Don Ottavio and sang lyric roles including modern operas such as the title roles in Stravinsky’s Oedipus rex and Pfitzner’s Palestrina; he also sang Flamand in Strauss’s Capriccio. Later in his career he took on heavier parts such as the lead role in Smetana’s Dalibor and Florestan in Fidelio. Dermota also gave many Lieder recitals accompanied by his wife, Hilde Berger-Weyerwald. To celebrate his 70^th birthday, he sang Tamino at the Vienna State Opera and a year later he sang the shepherd in Carlos Kleiber’s complete recording of Tristan und Isolde. He also taught singing at the Vienna Music Academy.

DUX, CLAIRE [so] (Witkowicz, Poland, 1885 – Chicago, 1967) laire Dux’s parents were German and she first studied voice in Berlin before working with Teresa Arkel in Milan. She made her debut in 1906 at the Cologne Opera as Pamina, and remained there until 1911. During these years, her international reputation grew as her guest appearances increased. She made a sensation as Sophie in the 1913 London premiere of Der Rosenkavalier at Covent Garden. Between 1911 and 1918 she sang with the Berlin Imperial Opera, but after she left Berlin, her career was mainly on the concert stage with guest appearances in opera and operetta. In 1921, she joined the Chicago Opera and toured the United States with the German Opera Company. She married as her third husband the extremely wealthy Charles Swift in 1926, thereby ending her active career. Her recordings for Polydor and Brunswick remind us what an exquisite singer she was.

EASTON, FLORENCE [so] (Middlesbrough, England, 1882 – New York City, 1955) lorence Easton immigrated with her family to Toronto, Canada in 1888. Her father was a choirmaster and her mother a church organist. She returned to England around 1900 and studied at the Royal Academy of Music and later in Paris with Elliott Haslam. Easton’s career began in 1902 with the Moody-Manners Opera Company. She married the tenor, Francis MacLennan. During 1905-1907, she toured Canada and the United States with Henry Savage’s English Grand Opera. During 1907 to 1916, her career was based in Germany, first in Berlin and then in Hamburg. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1917 and created the part of Lauretta in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. While at the Metropolitan, she became a kind of house soprano, renowned for her extreme versatility, singing 354 performances at that house. During the 1920s and 1930s, she became known as a Wagner interpreter, singing Isolde and Brünnhilde. Today, she is best remembered for her 1932 HMV recording of the finale from Siegfried with Lauritz Melchior conducted by Robert Heger. Easton retired from the operatic stage in 1936, and taught in New York City. Her first recordings were made for American Vocalion, followed by recordings for Brunswick, Edison, and HMV. The recordings on this set are taken from a New York recital that she gave after her retirement from the stage.

ELMO, CLOE [ms] (Lecce, Italy, 1910 – Ankara, Turkey, 1962) loe Elmo began her formal musical training when she was seventeen at Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. At the time it was thought that she would be a dramatic soprano. She entered an international singing competition in Vienna taking first prize. After further study she became a mezzo soprano and she made her debut at the Teatro Civico, Cagliari, as Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana on 3 May 1934. This role was followed soon after by Azucena in Il trovatore at Turin’s Teatro Regio. Her La Scala debut as Meg Page in Verdi’s Falstaff took place in 1936. Her other roles there were Brangäne and Azucena. She was very popular throughout Italy and on the radio. In 1947 she made her Metropolitan debut as Azucena, also singing Santuzza, Ulrica in Ballo in maschera, and Mrs. Quickly in Falstaff. Elmo returned to Italy and retired from the stage in 1954. She made a small group of 78 rpm discs for the Cetra label and sang Mrs. Quickly in the complete recording of Verdi’s Falstaff conducted by Arturo Toscanini.

FÄRBER-STRASSER, ERNESTINE [con] (Königsberg, East Prussia, 1884 – Switzerland,?) s far as we can determine, nothing is known about Ernestine Färber-Strasser’s early life and where and with whom she studied. The Neuer Theater Almanachs for 1911 and 1912 list her as a member of the Leipzig Stadttheater under the name of Emma Färber. For the 1912-1913 season, now listed as Ernestine, she was a member of the Aachen Stadttheater. She made a guest appearance in Amsterdam in 1912 for the first performance of Humperdinck’s Königskinder in the Netherlands. From the 1913 season until 1921, she was a celebrated member of the Munich Hofoper. In 1915 she married the artist Benjamin Strasser, and thereafter performed as Färber-Strasser. In 1917 she performed at the Musikvereinsaal in Vienna in Beethoven’s Missa solemnis under Franz Schalk. While she was a member of the Munich ensemble, she was honored with the title of Kammersängerin. For the 1921-1922 season, she returned to Leipzig. During the years 1923 and 1924, she toured extensively, specifically in Spain, England, and Switzerland. At Covent Garden in May of 1924, she performed the roles of Fricka and Waltraute in Wagner’s Ring Cycle and Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde, under the direction of Bruno Walter. She returned to Germany in 1925, becoming a member of the Stuttgart Landestheater, remaining there until 1930, while also making guest appearances in Munich. She appeared only once at the Vienna State Opera and that was as the nurse in Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten in 1927. With the onset of National Socialism in Germany, she immigrated to the United States and eventually returned to Europe to reside in Switzerland. Her repertoire included the great Verdi and Wagner mezzo roles, but she was also a renowned concert artist, which is reflected in her recordings of Lieder by Strauss, Wolf, Reger, Schubert, and Liszt. She made recordings in Berlin for German Grammophon in 1921, then a group for Vox in 1922, and finally another session for German Grammophon in early 1925. All of her discs are exceedingly rare.

FEINHALS, ELISE [con] (1869 – Munich, 1924) lmost nothing is known about Elise Feinhals. She was the wife of the celebrated German baritone Fritz Feinhals, whom she met when he became a member of the Munich Hofoper in 1898. The earliest mention of her at that house is as guest artist in the role of Erda in Wagner’s Ring Cycle during the 1898-1899 season, with her husband singing Wotan. She seems to have made her career primarily in Munich as a local concert artist of some accomplishment. She often appeared as a soloist with the Munich Kaim Orchestra, which eventually became the Munich Philharmonic under the administration of Siegmund von Hausegger (1920-1938). One noteworthy performance took place on 19 January 1900, when she sang the mezzo-soprano part in the Munich premiere of Mahler’s 2nd Symphony under the composer’s direction. Some sources have noted that Elise Feinhals sang at several of the Munich Summer Festivals. In 1905, she sang Erda in Das Rheingold with her husband as Wotan in Amsterdam for the Dutch Wagner Society. She and her husband had four children and resided at a villa on the Starnberger See to the south of Munich. At some point, she became a local voice teacher in Munich, and died there in 1924. Her recorded output included two Strauss songs for G&T in 1901 and one 1908 Odeon recording of Erda’s Warning from Das Rheingold, with her husband.

FLAGSTAD, KIRSTEN [so] (Hamar, Norway, 1895 – Oslo, 1962) irsten Flagstad is considered one of the greatest voices of the twentieth century and undisputedly the most acclaimed Wagnerian soprano of her era. She spent her early years in Oslo, her father being a conductor and her mother a pianist. At the age of eighteen she made her debut at the Oslo National Theater as Nuri, the second soprano role in Eugen d’Albert’s Tiefland. She continued her musical training in Stockholm and in 1919 began singing with Oslo’s newly created Opera Comique, taking on such parts as Desdemona in Otello, Amelia in Ballo in maschera, and Minnie in Fanciulla del West. Between 1928 and 1934, she sang at the Stora Theater in Göteborg, Sweden and by the early 1930s she was again appearing at the National Theater in Oslo. There, she began to perform heavier roles such as Tosca and Aida, and in 1932 she sang her first Isolde. She sang at Bayreuth during the seasons of 1933 and 1934, and then made a sensational debut at the Metropolitan on the afternoon of 2 February 1935 as Sieglinde in Die Walküre. During the next six years at the Met, Flagstad was a box office sellout singing all of the important Wagnerian roles and Leonore in Beethoven’s Fidelio. She had similar success at Covent Garden in 1936 and 1937 and she also toured Australia. She returned to German-occupied Norway in 1941, remaining there with her husband throughout the rest of the War. After the war, false rumors were publically spread that she had sung for the Nazis, and her husband was arrested for allegedly profiteering during the German occupation. Public opinion was very much against her, but eventually it all blew over and she made triumphant appearances at Covent Garden and the Met. On 22 May 1950, she gave the premiere of Strauss’s Four Last Songs with Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra. Flagstad’s last operatic performance was in Oslo on 5 June 1953, but she continued making concert appearances and numerous recordings.

GERHARDT, ELENA [ms] (Leipzig, 1883 – London, 1961) erhardt studied singing at the Leipzig Conservatory with Marie Hedmont between 1900 and 1904. Her talent was such that the conservatory’s director, Arthur Nikisch, accompanied Gerhardt at the piano for her debut recital, which took place on her 20^th birthday. She sang briefly with the Leipzig Opera during the 1905-1906 season, but subsequently she devoted her career to the singing of German Lieder, working to establish and perfect a style of Lieder singing distinct from the operatic style used by most of her contemporaries. Nikisch, with whom she was romantically involved, accompanied Gerhardt at her 1906 London debut, and the two made a series of Lieder records in Berlin for G&T in 1907; they made a second series of discs at HMV’s London studios in 1911. Gerhardt made her U.S. debut in 1912. She left Germany in 1934 and settled in England. Her voice deepened to mezzo-soprano with time, and she gave recitals as late as 1953. She continued making recordings for HMV through the end of the 1940s.

GIANNINI, DUSOLINA [so] (Philadelphia, 1902 – Zurich, 1986) ossessor of a dramatic voice with a fiery temperament, Dusolina Giannini was the daughter of the tenor, Ferruccio Giannini, who managed a small opera company in Philadelphia and who made early records in the late 1890s for Emil Berliner. Giannini first studied singing with her father, and in her late teens was noticed by the great soprano, Marcella Sembrich, who gave her lessons for four years. She made her debut in a 1925 New York Schola Cantorum concert substituting for Anna Case. In 1925, she made her operatic debut at the Hamburg Opera as Aida. In 1928, she was generally praised for her first Covent Garden performances, appearing as Aida, Santuzza, and Cio-Cio San. Her 1928 complete recording of Aida, made by Italian HMV, can be heard on compact disc. During the 1930s, she appeared everywhere in Europe while making tours of Australia and New Zealand. She was highly praised for her rendering of Donna Anna at Salzburg in 1934, repeating the role at the Paris Opera in 1936. She sang a few performances at the Metropolitan between 1936 and 1941, and also occasionally with the San Francisco company between 1939 and 1943. When the New York City Center Opera was formed in 1944, Giannini sang Tosca at its opening performance, returning later in the season to sing Carmen, Santuzza, and a reprise of Tosca. After the war, she continued to sing on stage and gave numerous concerts into the 1960s. Her first records were a small group of acoustic and electric Victors, followed by a substantial number of discs for HMV.

HAMMES, KARL [ba] (Zell-am-Mosel, Germany, 1896 – Warsaw, 1939) arl Hammes began singing after serving in the air force during World War I and made his debut in 1925 at the Cologne Opera. He joined the Kroll Opera, Berlin, in 1927 and in 1929 left for Vienna, where he sang for six years. He performed Amfortas and Gunther at Bayreuth in 1927, and sang regularly at Salzburg, particularly as Don Giovanni and Figaro. As a guest artist, he sang in Brussels, Amsterdam, London, Munich, and Hamburg. He was shot down in the early stages of World War II and was fatally wounded. He recorded for HMV.

HEMPEL, FRIEDA [so] (Leipzig, 1885 – Berlin, 1955) rieda Hempel enjoyed an international operatic and concert career that spanned more than forty-five years. In 1905, she made her professional debut in Breslau, and between 1905 and 1907 she sang at the Court Opera in Schwerin. Her Berlin debut took place at the Royal Opera in 1905, appearing as Frau Fluth in Nicolai’s Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor. From 1907-1912 she was a member of the Royal Opera in Berlin. Hempel was first heard at Covent Garden in 1907, in a double bill as Mozart’s Bastienne and Humperdinck’s Gretel. From 1912-1919, she was on the roster of the Metropolitan Opera. There, on 9 December 1913, she sang the Marschallin in the American premiere of Der Rosenkavalier, a role Richard Strauss had given her for the Berlin premiere in 1911. In 1919, Hempel left the Metropolitan Opera, and on 6 October 1920, the centenary of the birth of Jenny Lind, Hempel began giving a series of recitals in which she impersonated Jenny Lind. These concerts, in which she wore clothing from Lind’s time, were so successful that she continued to give them as well as other recitals until her retirement in 1951. Hempel made records for Odeon, HMV, Victor, Polydor, and Edison.

HENSEL, HEINRICH [te] (Neustadt, Germany, 1874 – Hamburg, 1935.)  pupil of Gustav Walter in Vienna, Hensel made his debut in Freiburg in 1897. He was then secured by the Frankfurt Opera, where he appeared through 1906. Tenure with the opera at Wiesbaden followed (1906-1911). At the Bayreuth Festival, Hensel was heard as Parsifal and Loge. He was on the roster of the Metropolitan during the 1911-1912 season, singing Siegmund, Siegfried, Lohengrin, and Jeník (The Bartered Bride.) Hensel sang with the Chicago Opera, as well as at Covent Garden (1911-1914), where he sang Wagnerian repertoire, including London’s first staged Parsifal in 1914. From 1912 through 1929, he was the leading Heldentenor of the Hamburg Opera. Hensel recorded for Pathé, HMV, Parlophon, and Edison.

HÜSCH, GERHARD [ba] (Hanover, 1901 – Munich, 1984) erhard Hüsch first studied acting, but singing soon became his main interest and he performed in a number of provincial theaters before joining the Cologne Opera in 1927. He sang as a guest at the Berlin State Opera in 1929, and became a member of the company in 1930. He remained there until the end of his opera career in 1940. He made guest appearances throughout Europe, in Vienna, London, Belgium, Holland, and in various cities in Scandinavia. In 1930 and 1931, he performed Wolfram at Bayreuth under Toscanini and Siegfried Wagner. His most famous role was Papageno in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte which he sang in HMV’s complete recording under Sir Thomas Beecham. Hüsch also pursued a concert career and now is best remembered as an important and influential interpreter of German Lieder. His fine recordings of Schubert, Wolf, and Pfitzner are still highly esteemed. After the war, he taught in Europe and the United States. He made recordings for Parlophon, HMV, and Telefunken.

HUTT, ROBERT [te] (Karlsruhe, Germany, 1878 – Berlin, 1942) obert Hutt first studied engineering, but was encouraged by conductor Felix Mottl to study singing. After working with a local teacher and with Julius Kniese at Bayreuth, he made his debut in Karlsruhe in 1903. After performing for a number of years with the Düsseldorf Opera, Hutt joined the Frankfurt Opera in 1910, remaining until 1917. In London, under Thomas Beecham, he performed Walther and Parsifal in 1913 and 1914. He became a member of the Berlin Imperial Opera in 1917 and for the next ten years, was a major Heldentenor in that city. Hutt toured the United States with the German Opera Company in 1923. He recorded for Polydor, Odeon, and HMV.

JADLOWKER, HERMANN [te] (Riga, 1877 – Tel Aviv, 1953) ermann Jadlowker’s debut took place in Cologne, 1899, which was followed by work in Stettin and three seasons in his native Riga. He also had great success in Karlsruhe between 1906 and 1909, and later as a guest. He was on the roster of the Metropolitan between 1910 and 1912, his repertoire there varying between German and Italian roles. Still, Caruso was the looming presence of the tenor roster, so Jadlowker left for greener pastures, accepting a contract with the Berlin State Opera. While in Berlin, he created Bacchus in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos. He was noted as Radamès and Otello, but was just as much at home in the coloratura intricacies of Idomeneo and Il barbiere di Siviglia. In 1929, he returned to Riga as chief cantor of the main synagogue. From 1936 to 1938, he taught at the Riga Conservatory, also maintaining an active career primarily in concert. Shortly before the war, he immigrated to Jerusalem and then Tel Aviv, where he taught while continuing to sing occasional concerts. He recorded first for Odeon, then HMV, and finally for Polydor, making twelve electric sides in 1927.

JANSSEN, HERBERT [ba] (Cologne, 1892 – New York City, 1965) erbert Janssen was from a wealthy Cologne family and it was expected that he would study law, and certainly not become a professional singer. In fact he did study law, but then studied singing with Oscar Daniel in Berlin. Janssen debuted in 1922 at the Berlin Staatsoper remaining there until 1937. In 1923, he first took on the role of Wolfram in Tannhäuser, a role which he would continue to perform throughout his career. He was a guest artist every year from 1926 until 1939 at Covent Garden, also appearing at every major European house during this period. From 1930 until 1937 he appeared at the Bayreuth Festival, but in 1938 he fled Germany as a political refugee, first going to Buenos Aires. Taking up residence in New York City in 1939, Janssen regularly appeared with the Metropolitan until 1951. His roles in Wagnerian opera included Amfortas, Wolfram, Gunther, Kurwenal, and Wotan. He can be heard as Wolfram in Columbia’s 1930 abridged recording of Tannhäuser, and as Don Pizarro in the famous 1944 NBC broadcast of Beethoven’s Fidelio under Arturo Toscanini. During his long career, Janssen gave numerous Lieder concerts and considered himself more of a Lieder singer than an opera singer. The performances heard here derive from U. S. broadcasts first issued on a 10-inch Eterna LP.

KALTER, SABINE [ms] (Jarosław, Galicia, 1890 – London, 1957) tudying in Vienna with Rosa Papier-Paumgartner and Amalie Materna, Sabine Kalter made her debut with the Vienna Volksoper in 1911, remaining with that company through 1914. Kalter’s wide range permitted her to sing roles from contralto to high mezzo and even soprano parts on occasion. From 1915 through 1935, she was a leading figure with the Hamburg Opera. During these years, her usual roles were Lady Macbeth, Dalila, Amneris, Fidès, and Carmen. She was also heard in several premieres, including Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane in 1927, Stravinsky’s Oedipus rex in 1928, and Hindemith’s Neues vom Tage in 1929. In 1935, Kalter was removed from the Hamburg Opera roster by the Nazis, and she quickly left Germany to settle in London. She became a noted figure at Covent Garden from 1935 until her retirement from the operatic stage in 1939. She was particularly admired for her Wagnerian roles, including Brangäne, Ortrud, and Fricka. In addition to her operatic work, Kalter was also a successful concert and Lieder singer. After her retirement, she taught in London into the 1950s. Her recordings were made for Odeon beginning in 1923, and several of her Covent Garden appearances in the late 1930s have been preserved.

KIPNIS, ALEXANDER [bs] (Zhitomir, Ukraine, 1891 – Westport, Connecticut, 1978) lexander Kipnis entered the Warsaw Conservatory at age nineteen. In 1912, he traveled to Berlin, where he began studying voice with Ernst Grenzebach, who was also the teacher of Lauritz Melchior, Max Lorenz, and Meta Seinemeyer. While in Berlin, Kipnis, a Russian, was interned. Freed in 1915, he made his stage debut in Hamburg, singing three Richard Strauss songs as a “guest” in the second act party scene of Die Fledermaus. In 1922, Kipnis joined the Deutsches Oper in Berlin, and sang Gurnemanz in Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival in 1927 under Karl Muck’s baton. Between 1923 and 1932, he was on the roster of the Chicago Civic Opera, and between 1926 and 1941, he sang a number of seasons at the Colón. In 1938, he settled permanently in the United States. By the time of his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1940 as Gurnemanz, he had sung at virtually every major opera house and festival. According to his son, the late keyboardist Igor Kipnis, Alexander Kipnis sang 108 roles from 1915-1951 and performed in opera and oratorio over 1600 times. He sang his final Met performance in 1946, but continued to concertize until 1951. He then began teaching, first at the New York College of Music, and then in 1966 at the Juilliard School. His first recordings were made for Odeon in 1915, followed by a few additional acoustic discs for Polydor and Homochord. His numerous electric recordings were made for HMV, English and American Columbia, and RCA Victor.

KLOSE, MARGARETE [ms] (Berlin, 1899 – Berlin, 1968) Born Frieda Klose, she studied with Max Marschalk in Berlin, where she made her first concert appearance in 1923. In 1927 she made her operatic debut in Ulm singing a role in Kalman’s Gräfin Maritza. Her first major role, also in Ulm, was Azucena in Il trovatore. She appeared at Bayreuth, Vienna, Buenos Aires, London, Dresden, Munich, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. She retired from the stage in 1960 and taught in Berlin until her death. Her earliest recordings were made in Paris for Pathé in 1929, followed by discs for Telefunken, HMV, and Polydor.

KONETZNI, HILDE [so] (Vienna, 1905 – Vienna, 1980) orn Hilde Konerczny, she received her vocal training in Vienna. In 1929 she made her debut as Sieglinde in the Czech town of Gablonz, followed by six years in Prague between 1932 and 1938. In 1935, she sang for the first time at the Vienna State Opera, which became her artistic home even into the 1970s when she was still singing small parts there. She was best known for her Wagner and Strauss portrayals. Both before and after the war, she appeared at Covent Garden, and in 1950 she sang Sieglinde under Furtwängler at La Scala. She retired in 1974 and afterwards, taught singing in Vienna. Her older sister, Anny Konetzni (1902-1968) was also a well-known Wagnerian soprano.

KURZ, SELMA [so] (Biala, Galicia, 1874 – Vienna, 1933) elma Kurz began her career as a mezzo-soprano in Hamburg and then Frankfurt. She debuted as Elisabeth in Tannhäuser and soon portrayed Carmen. She arrived at the Vienna Hofoper in 1899 as a mezzo with Mignon as her first role, and was an immediate success. This theater was to be Kurz’s artistic home until her retirement thirty years later. Gustav Mahler, the theater’s director, was the first to encourage her coloratura soprano range and two years later she triumphed as the Queen of the Night. Nevertheless, she continued singing heavier roles, and was very popular as Mimì and Cio-Cio-San. Perhaps the high point of her Viennese career occurred on 4 October 1916, when she created Zerbinetta in the second version of Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos. She made many international appearances at the major houses of Europe, but only sang once in the United States: a 1921 concert at New York’s Hippodrome. Kurz retired in 1927, singing her last performance at the Vienna Staatsoper as Rosina. She recorded over 150 sides: Zonophone, G&T, HMV, Edison (cylinders), and Deutsche Grammophon/Polydor; her last records were four electric sides for HMV in 1926. She recorded only the one Richard Strauss song heard in this compilation. (Kurz’s daughter was the singer Desi Halban.)

LEHMANN, LOTTE [so] (Perleberg, Germany, 1888 – Santa Barbara, California, 1976) fter studying with a number of teachers, Lotte Lehmann made her debut in 1910 at the Hamburg Opera. In 1914, she was engaged by the Vienna Imperial Opera and became a star of the first order, performing in Wagner and creating roles in a number of Richard Strauss operas. She performed throughout the world in South America, London, Paris, Stockholm, Berlin, and regularly at Salzburg. She also sang on the concert platform. In 1930, Lehmann sang at the Chicago Opera, and joined the Metropolitan in 1934. She broke her contract with the Vienna State Opera in 1938, and moved permanently to the United States. After retiring from the stage in 1945, she continued to concertize until 1951. Afterwards, she taught master classes at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. Her first recordings were acoustic Polydors followed by acoustic and electric Odeons and Parlophons. During the 1930s she recorded for HMV and after settling in the United States she recorded for Victor and Columbia.

LEISNER, EMMI [ms] (Flensburg, Germany, 1885 – Kampen on Sylt, Germany, 1958) mmi Leisner began her vocal studies with Helene Breest in Berlin. She was engaged as soloist by Karl Straube, the conductor of Leipzig’s world-famous Thomas Choir, where her career as an oratorio singer was born. In 1912 she sang Orphée in Jacques-Dalcroze’s famous and avant-garde production of Gluck’s opera at Hellerau. She was a member of the Berlin Opera from 1913-1921, but after 1922 she withdrew from the operatic stage and concentrated on Lieder and oratorio work. She gave concerts in all of the major German cities as well as in France, England, the United States, Denmark, Sweden, and the Middle East. She helped to popularize contemporary composers and was regarded as one of the finest interpreters of Hans Pfitzner’s Lieder. As an oratorio artist, she was esteemed for her Bach and Handel interpretations. In 1939 Leisner moved to Kampen on the island of Sylt. She gave her last Lieder recital in 1948 and spent her final years teaching. Her first recordings were made for Thomas Edison in 1910, but were not published at the time. Several of these can now be heard on Marston’s the Edison Legacy Volume 1. She also recorded a small number of German Odeon discs at the beginning of her career, followed by many discs both acoustic and electric for Deutsche Grammophon. Her final recordings were made for Electrola during World War II.

McCORMACK, JOHN [te] (Athlone, Ireland, 1884 – Booterstown near Dublin, 1945) ndoubtedly the most famous singer that Ireland has produced, John McCormack is considered one of the great concert artists of the twentieth century. Renowned for his diction and breath control, he sang operatic arias, Lieder, art songs, and popular Irish ballads, holding concert audiences spellbound wherever he appeared. At the age of nineteen, McCormack began vocal studies in Dublin with Vincent O’Brien, who encouraged him to pursue a singing career. He journeyed to Milan in 1905 to study singing with Vincenzo Sabatini and made his debut in 1906 at Savona’s Teatro Chiabrera in Mascagni’s L’amico Fritz. The following year he debuted at Covent Garden as Turiddu in Cavalleria rusticana, being the youngest tenor to sing a major role at that house. During this period, he was also singing concerts in England and Ireland. In the fall of 1909, he sailed to the United States to sing with Hammerstein’s Company and later, the Metropolitan. By 1912, he was giving huge numbers of concerts throughout the States, including in New York’s five-thousand seat Hippodrome Theater. His operatic appearances became less frequent and by the late teens his career was entirely focused on the concert platform. He sang his public farewell in 1938 at London’s Royal Albert Hall, but with the outbreak of war in 1939 he sang numerous concerts for the Red Cross while continuing to broadcast and make records. Illness with emphysema forced him to stop singing in 1943 and he died two years later. His recording career began in 1904 with cylinders and discs. He made over 700 records, with his final session in August 1942.

NASH, HEDDLE [te] (London, 1894 – London, 1961) eddle Nash studied in his native city with Marie Brema and subsequently in Italy with Giuseppe Borgatti, and he made his debut in Milan at the Teatro Carcano as Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia. He sang in Turin, Genoa, and Bologna, returning to England in 1925 where he sang at the Old Vic and at the British National Opera Company. His Covent Garden debut was in 1929 as Don Ottavio. He participated in the first seasons of the Glyndebourne Festival and made recordings of Così fan tutte and Le nozze di Figaro with the Glyndebourne cast under Fritz Busch. During World War II, he appeared regularly with the Carl Rosa Opera Company. He was the most sought after tenor between the two world wars for oratorios, particularly Elgar’s The dream of Gerontius, which he recorded under Sir Malcolm Sargent in 1945. He recorded both for English Columbia and HMV.

OBER, MARGARETHE [con] (Berlin, 1885 – Bad Sachsa, Germany, 1971) argarethe Ober studied in Berlin with Benno Stolzenberg and with Arthur Arndt, who became her husband in 1910. In 1906, Ober made her debut in Frankfurt as Azucena in Il trovatore. The next year, she was engaged by the Berlin State Opera, where she remained on the roster through 1945. Meanwhile, she joined the Met in 1913, and sang Octavian in the American premiere of Der Rosenkavalier in 1913. She also appeared as a concert singer of Lieder and recorded several Lieder selections for the Victor company accompanied by her husband. With the U.S. involvement in the war, the Met canceled the contracts of several German singers and Ober was among them. She was interned and stayed in America, however, until the conclusion of the war. During the 1920s, her career continued to flourish in Europe and she sang a number of important Berlin premiers, notably Janácˇek’s Jenu˚fa and Schreker’s Der ferne Klang. Ober recorded for the Gramophone Company, Odeon, Parlophon, Victor, Pathé, and Polydor.

OLSZEWSKA, MARIA [con] (Ludwigsschwaige, Germany, 1892 – Klagenfurt, Germany, 1969) orn Maria Berchtenbreiter, she studied at Munich University and sang in operetta. Her operatic debut occurred in 1915 at the Krefeld Opera. She then sang in Leipzig before joining the Hamburg Opera in 1917. There, she created Brigitta in Korngold’s Die tote Stadt in 1920. She sang briefly at the Vienna State Opera in 1921, then in Hamburg from 1923 to 1925, and then returned to Vienna between 1925 and 1930. In 1925, Olszewska married baritone Emil Schipper. She made guest appearances at La Scala, Covent Garden, La Monnaie, and in Paris and also toured North and South America. She joined the Chicago Opera from 1928 to 1932 and sang at the Metropolitan until 1935. Returning to Europe, she participated in occasional operetta performances and became a noted teacher in Vienna. Olszewska made acoustic and electric Polydor recordings, followed by electric HMV discs. Today she is best remembered for her portrayal of Octavian in the abridged 1932 HMV recording of Der Rosenkavalier, with Lotte Lehmann and Elisabeth Schumann, conducted by Robert Heger.

PATZAK, JULIUS [te] (Vienna, 1898 – Rottach-Egern, Germany, 1974) ulius Patzak made his debut in 1926 in Reichenberg as Radamès. He appeared in Munich in 1928 and remained a regular member of that company until 1945. He took part in the world premieres of Pfitzner’s Das Herz, Richard Strauss’s Friedenstag, and Orff’s Der Mond. After 1945, he sang regularly in Vienna and at the Salzburg Festival. He also appeared as a guest at Covent Garden as Tamino, Florestan, and Herod and recorded Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Kathleen Ferrier conducted by Bruno Walter. He taught for a period in Vienna before his retirement to Rottach-Egern.

PAULY, ROSE [so] (Eperjes, Hungary, 1894 – Kfar Shmaryahu, Israel, 1975) orn Rose Pollak, she studied with the great contralto, Rosa Papier-Paumgartner in Vienna. Her debut at the Vienna State Opera in 1918 was as Desdemona. She next performed in Hamburg, and afterwards in Gera, Karlsruhe, Cologne, and Mannheim. In 1927, Pauly joined the Kroll Opera, Berlin and remained until 1931. In 1930, she had a great success as Strauss’s Salome at the Paris Opera. She was a member of the Vienna State Opera until 1935 and appeared often at the Salzburg Festival. Pauly who was Jewish immigrated to America in 1937, performing Strauss’s Elektra in New York before joining the Metropolitan Opera in 1938. After her retirement from the stage in 1943, she lived and taught in Israel. Hilde Zadek was one of her students.

PILTTI, LEA [so] (Rautjärvi, Finland 1904 – Helsinki, 1982) orn Lea Marie Killinen, she studied at the Helsinki Conservatory in 1926, and made her debut that year as Lakmé. She then completed her studies in Paris and Berlin. Between 1929 and 1938, she performed in Königsberg, Danzig, Darmstadt, and Weimar. She joined the Vienna State Opera in 1938 and remained there until 1944. She appeared at the Salzburg Festival as Queen of the Night in 1941. She later concertized throughout the world and gave a farewell recital in Helsinki in 1961. She recorded for HMV.

POELL, ALFRED [ba] (Linz, 1900 – Vienna, 1968) lfred Poell studied medicine at the University of Innsbruck, and practiced his profession for a time, before taking up singing instruction at Vienna’s Music Academy. He made his debut in 1929 with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, where he stayed for ten years. He joined the Vienna State Opera in 1940 and continued to sing there until his retirement. Specializing in Mozart, he was a frequent guest at the Salzburg and Glyndebourne Festivals. He also performed the baritone roles in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos, Die Frau ohne Schatten, and Arabella. He was admired as a concert and Lieder singer as well. He can be heard on LP recordings of complete operas, many of which have been reissued on CD.

RETHBERG, ELISABETH [so] (Schwarzenberg, Germany 1894 – Yorktown Heights, NY, 1976) orn Lisbeth Sättler, she studied at the Dresden Conservatory. In 1915 she made her stage debut in Dresden as Arsena in Johann Strauss’s Der Zigeunerbaron, opposite the young tenor, Richard Tauber. She remained in Dresden until 1922, performing such varied roles as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, the Empress in Die Frau ohne Schatten, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, and Tosca. In 1922 she appeared at the Salzburg festival as the Countess in Nozze di Figaro and Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail. That year, she also made her Metropolitan debut to glowing notices as Aida. The Met became her artistic home for the next twenty seasons, during which she was a star of the company in spinto roles of Verdi and the lighter Wagnerian parts of Elsa, Eva, and Sieglinde. Meanwhile, her career continued to flourish in Europe with appearances at Covent Garden, La Scala, and the Paris Opera. In 1928 she returned to Dresden to create the title role in Strauss’s Die ägyptische Helena. By the late 1930s, Rethberg’s voice was beginning to decline, but her last years at the Met were not without flashes of greatness, such as her 1938 coast-to-coast broadcast of Verdi’s Otello opposite Giovanni Martinelli and Lawrence Tibbett, which can be heard on several CD labels. Rethberg’s earliest recordings were acoustic Odeon discs made between 1920 and 1922, including three lovely duets with Richard Tauber and two songs by Richard Strauss. Following her Met debut, she recorded acoustic and electric records for Brunswick, and in 1927 began recording for HMV and Victor.

ROESELER, MARCELLA [so] (Berlin, 1890 – Berlin, 1957) arcella Roeseler made her debut as Santuzza at the Wiesbaden Opera in 1910 and during the following years, she sang in Kassel, Dessau, and Munich. She was at the Breslau Opera from 1919 to 1921 before joining the Berlin Volksoper in 1922. Roeseler toured America with the German Opera Company in 1923, which resulted in her being engaged by the Metropolitan Opera until 1927. She returned to Berlin in 1928, making numerous guest appearances in Germany, as well as Holland, Belgium, and France. After retiring, she taught in Berlin where the actress and chanson singer Hildegarde Kneff was one of her students. Her few records are all for Polydor and Odeon.

ROSWAENGE, HELGE [te] (Copenhagen, 1897 – Munich, 1972) riginally trained as a chemist, Helge Roswaenge (also spelled Rosvaenge) studied singing in Denmark and Berlin. His operatic debut was as Don José in 1921 at Neustrelitz. He next sang in Altenburg, then Basel, and Cologne. He joined the Berlin State Opera in 1929, and after 1930, sang concurrently at the Vienna State Opera. He also sang as a guest in London, Milan, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Brussels, Amsterdam, Munich, Hamburg, and Dresden. After 1932 he appeared regularly at the Salzburg and Bayreuth Festivals. He continued singing after the war, even giving concerts in New York in 1963-1964. He made numerous electric recordings for Odeon, Polydor, and HMV. He recorded only two Richard Strauss songs.

SCHLOSS, LOTTE (CHARLOTTE) [so] (Vienna, 1871 – Berlin, 1911) otte Schloss spent the early years of her career as an actress. She later studied singing in Munich and made her debut there in 1896 as Elvira in Don Giovanni. She also performed at the Hamburg Opera, where she was in that company’s first performance of Charpentier’s Louise. Her other roles included Eva, Marguerite, Mignon, Carmen, Elsa, and Susanna. Her only recordings are G&Ts made in Munich in 1901.

SCHLUSNUS, HEINRICH [ba] (Braubach am Rhein, Germany, 1888 – Frankfurt, 1952) einrich Schlusnus was the most famous German baritone between the two world wars and one of the greatest Lieder singers of the twentieth century. He made his debut in 1915 in Hamburg as the Herald in Lohengrin. From 1917 to 1945, he was a regular performer at the Berlin State Opera. He toured Austria, Italy, and North America. He was a guest artist at Covent Garden, Chicago, and Vienna. He sang Amfortas at Bayreuth and he continued singing actively in public until 1951. Schlusnus recorded both acoustic and electric records for Polydor and at the end of his career he made a small number of recordings for Decca.

SCHÖNE, LOTTE [so] (Vienna, 1891 – Bobigny, near Paris, 1977) orn Charlotte Bodenstein, Lotte Schöne began studying singing at the age of fourteen with Johannes Rees in Vienna. Her career was postponed because of her marriage in 1911 and the birth of her son in 1913. Her debut took place in 1915 at the Vienna Volksoper in Der Freischütz. During the next two seasons, she appeared in over thirty productions. She joined the Vienna Hofoper in 1917, remaining there until 1926. She also sang regularly at the Salzburg Festival and made many guest appearances. In 1926, she joined the Berlin City Opera, and in1927 made a guest appearance at Covent Garden creating Liù in the London premiere of Puccini’s Turandot. There were also regular appearances in Paris during this time. With the Nazi takeover in 1933, Schöne, a Jew left Germany immediately, and thereafter, her appearances were confined mostly to Paris and Vienna. By 1938, her stage career was over, but she continued to concertize until she went into hiding in the Alps until the end of the war. After the war, she attempted a brief comeback but quickly chose family over career. Her first records were acoustic Odeons, followed by electric discs for Vox and HMV. She was highly regarded by Richard Strauss, but only recorded the two songs heard here. This acoustic Odeon is undoubtedly her rarest record.

SCHORR, FRIEDRICH [bs-ba] (Nagyvarárd, Hungary, 1888 – Farmington, Connecticut, 1953) on of cantor Mayer Schorr who made records for Columbia, Friedrich Schorr studied law in Vienna and also studied singing there with Adolf Robinson. He made his way to the U.S. in 1911 and appeared with the Chicago Opera during the 1911-1912 season in small roles. He returned to Europe, making his official debut in Graz as Wotan in Die Walküre, in June of 1912. His career gained momentum with engagements in Vienna and Prague, and in 1923 he was engaged by the Berlin Staatsoper, where he remained through 1931. There, besides Wagnerian roles, he sang parts in Busoni’s Doktor Faust, Pfitzner’s Palestrina, and Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten. During this time he also appeared with the Chicago Opera Company and made appearances at Bayreuth through 1931. He appeared at Covent Garden until the outbreak of the Second World War. His longest tenure was with the Metropolitan Opera from 1924 until his retirement in 1943. Wagnerian roles were his specialty at the Met, and he was best-loved for his portrayals of Wotan and Hans Sachs. He also sang the role of Don Pizarro in Beethoven’s Fidelio. Following his retirement, Schorr gave concerts and taught in New York City. His earliest records were acoustic discs for DGG, and all of his electric records were made for HMV and Victor.

SCHUMANN, ELISABETH [so] (Merseburg, Germany, 1888 – New York City, 1952) lisabeth Schumann studied singing in Berlin and Dresden, making her debut in Hamburg in 1909. Beginning as a soubrette, she gradually took on more substantial lyric roles. She remained in Hamburg until 1915, also singing during the 1914-1915 season at the Metropolitan. From 1919 until 1938, she was one of the most important sopranos at the Vienna State Opera. She was renowned for her portrayal of Mozart roles, but was most famous as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier. She was greatly admired by Richard Strauss, who accompanied her in recital in Vienna. In 1938, she immigrated to the U.S., residing in New York City, until her death. She gave recitals in the U.S. and taught at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. After the war, she gave frequent concerts in Europe, especially in England, where she broadcast on the BBC. Schumann made acoustic recordings for Edison, Odeon, and Polydor, followed by a large number of electric discs for HMV.

SCHUMANN-HEINK, ERNESTINE [con] (Libenˇ, Bohemia, 1861 – Hollywood,  California, 1936) rnestine Schumann-Heink was arguably the greatest contralto of her day. She was born Tini Rössler to a German-speaking family in a town near Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1877, she sang her first professional performance as the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Graz. Her operatic debut took place at Dresden’s Hofopera House on 15 October 1878 singing Azucena in Il trovatore. Her operatic career took her to the Hamburg Municipal Opera, then to Berlin’s Kroll Opera House, Covent Garden, and Bayreuth. She was on the roster of the Metropolitan between 1899 and 1902, with a few guest appearances with the company later in her career. She created the role of Klytaemnestra in the world premiere of Strauss’s Elektra at the Dresden State Opera in 1909, but she chose not to sing the role after the first run. By this time she had become more prominent as a concert singer, performing operatic arias, German Lieder, and sentimental songs of the day. In later life, Schumann-Heink was frequently heard on the radio and during the summer of 1934, hosted her own weekly program sponsored by the Gerber baby foods company. Her earliest recordings were made for American Zonophone in 1900. In 1903, she recorded five titles for the Columbia Grand Opera series, and from 1905 until 1931, she recorded exclusively for Victor. She only recorded one Richard Strauss song.

SCHWARZ, JOSEPH [ba] (Riga, 1880 – Berlin, 1926) ollowing studies in Vienna and Berlin, Joseph Schwarz made his debut at Linz in 1902 as Amonasro in Aida. After appearances in Riga, Graz, and Saint Petersburg, he sang with the Vienna Volksoper and then made his debut at the Vienna Hofoper in 1909 as Count de Luna in Verdi’s Il trovatore. In 1915, Schwarz first appeared with the Berlin Opera. He began a two-season tenure with the Chicago Opera in 1921 debuting with great success as Rigoletto. During this period he wed wealthy widow Clara Sielken. A prolonged honeymoon causing missed performances resulted in his Chicago Opera contract being terminated. Schwarz was first heard at the Paris Opera in 1923 and at Covent Garden the following year, again as Rigoletto. He became ill in 1924, presumably due to alcoholism. Most of his subsequent stage appearances were in concert rather than opera. He died in 1926 following kidney surgery. His beautiful voice can be heard on one Edison cylinder and on Parlophon, Pathé, Polydor, and Zonophone discs.

SEINEMEYER, META [so] (Berlin, 1895 – Dresden, 1929) eta Seinemeyer studied in her native city, making her debut in 1918 at the Berlin-Charlottenburg Opera in Offenbach’s Die schöne Helena. She remained there until 1924. Between January and April 1923, she toured the United States with the German Opera Company, performing with such noted singers as Friedrich Schorr, Alexander Kipnis, Jacques Urlus, Ottilie Metzger, and Theodor Lattermann. Her roles included Elsa in Lohengrin, Eva in Die Meistersinger, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, Senta in Der fliegende Holländer, and Agathe in Der Freischütz. In 1924, she sang Marguerite at the Dresden opera and was immediately offered a contract. Dresden was to be her artistic home until her premature death. There, in 1925, she sang in the first German performance of Giordano’s Andrea Chenier opposite Tino Pattiera. Later that season, she created the Duchess of Parma in the world premiere of Busoni’s Doktor Faust. Seinemeyer became a key player in the German revival of Verdi, first singing Leonora in La forza del destino and later Aida, and Elisabeth of Valois in Don Carlos. Just hours before her death from leukemia and while bedridden in the hospital, she married the conductor Frieder Weissmann. Seinemeyer’s first records were made in 1919 for German Artiphon, and then in 1925 she began to record for Parlophon and produced nearly one hundred sides for that company.

SLEZAK, LEO [te] (Šumperk, Bohemia, 1873 – Rottach-Egern, Germany, 1946) eo Slezak was one of the greatest singer-personalities of the period with a rumbustious sense of humor. He made his debut in Brno, followed by appearances in Berlin before joining the Vienna Hofoper ensemble in 1901. Except for a hiatus between 1912 and 1917, Slezak remained on the Hofoper roster until 1926. A huge man, he assumed a wide range of German, French, and Italian dramatic roles. He made his Covent Garden debut in 1901 as Siegfried, and returned in 1909, after studying in Paris with Jean de Reszke. Between 1909 and 1912 he sang at the Metropolitan Opera, where he achieved enormous success, especially as Otello opposite Frances Alda, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Slezak made his official farewell to the operatic stage at the age of sixty, with a performance of Pagliacci at the Vienna Staatsoper in 1933, though he is listed as singing Alfred in Die Fledermaus in January 1934 in the archives of the same house. He also made a name for himself as a Lieder singer and as a comic-film star. He made well over 300 recordings for almost every early label, beginning with G&T in 1901 and concluding with electric Polydor recordings in the 1930s. His son was the famous actor, Walter Slezak (1902-1983) and his daughter the opera and concert singer Margarete Slezak (1901-1953).

STÜCKGOLD, GRETE [so] (London, 1895 – Falls Village, Connecticut, 1977) orn Gretchen Schneidt to an English mother and German father, the family moved to Germany in 1913 and she began her vocal studies with Jacques Stückgold (1877-1953) in Munich. After two years of study, she was engaged at the Nurnberg Stadttheater for the 1915-1916 season as Gretchen Schneidt, remaining there through the 1918-1919 season. She continued to sing guest engagements for the next two years, marrying her teacher and from then on performing as Grete Stückgold. Through her concert performances she established herself as a fine interpreter of Lieder and oratorio. Having given birth to a daughter, Grete Stückgold did not return to the operatic stage until 1926, when she began singing at Berlin’s Charlottenburg Opera. She made her debut there on 24 March as Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, opposite Maria Olszewska’s Dorabella and Lotte Schöne’s Despina. In 1927 she sang Berthe to Sigrid Onegin’s Fidès in that theater’s first Le prophète, and on 5 April 1928 she created for Charlottenburg the role of Heliane in Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane, under Bruno Walter’s baton. During this period she also made guest appearances at the Semperoper in Dresden and the Stadttheater in Leipzig. On 2 November 1927, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Eva in Die Meistersinger. She returned to the Met for the next four seasons, then again from 1932 to 1934 and 1937 to 1939. Stückgold divorced her husband in 1929, but continued using his name. She married the baritone, Gustav Schützendorf, with whom she often performed at the Met. While in the United States, she made guest appearances in San Francisco, Chicago, and Philadelphia, as well as being frequently heard on the radio. After Schützendorf died in 1937, she decided to reside in New York. Because her first husband was Jewish and she had a half-Jewish daughter, she refused to return to Europe. After the war she took a teaching position at Bennington College in Vermont and eventually resided in Falls Village, Connecticut where she died. Grete Stückgold made her earliest records for German Grammophon and Vox between 1921 and 1924. She did not record again until after World War II, when she made a few Lieder recordings for the small New York label, Birch Records.

TAUBER, RICHARD [te] (Linz, Austria, 1891 – London, 1948) ichard Tauber’s father was an actor of the same name and his mother was a minor soubrette soprano. Tauber had early aspirations of becoming a singer but failed to impress anyone for whom he auditioned because he wanted only to sing Wagner, whose music was hardly suited to the young man’s voice. His father enrolled him at the Frankfurt Conservatory to study piano, composition, and conducting. Later Richard studied voice in Freiburg with Carl Beines. Tauber’s operatic debut took place at Chemnitz in 1913 as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, followed several weeks later by Max in Der Freischütz. This was followed shortly by a very successful debut in Dresden, where he remained for five years. His 1915 Berlin debut was as Bacchus in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, which he performed with forty-eight hours notice and one rehearsal. In 1920, he debuted at the Vienna State Opera replacing Alfred Piccaver in La bohème, appearing regularly there until 1938. He also appeared at the Berlin State Opera and the Salzburg Festival. Tauber sang Calàf in the first German run of Puccini’s Turandot, and was renowned for his Mozart portrayals. But his great fame came from his performances of operettas by Franz Lehár, including Frasquita, Paganini, Der Zarewitsch, Das Land des Lächelns, Friederike, Schön ist die Welt, and Giuditta. He became one of the bestselling recording artists of the era and gave frequent radio broadcasts. He also appeared in a number of German and English films. He made his London debut in operetta in 1931 and toured the U. S. that same year. Tauber was attacked in a park by Nazi thugs in 1933, because his father was Jewish, and he immediately left Germany. He also left Austria in 1938. When the war broke out, Tauber applied for entry to the United Kingdom, while staying in Switzerland, and eventually became a citizen of Great Britain. During the war he gave concerts, also making numerous recordings and radio broadcasts. He sang his final operatic
appearance at Covent Garden in 1947 as Don Ottavio with the Vienna State Opera on tour. Shortly after, he died of lung cancer. Tauber made over 700 recordings, beginning in 1919 for Odeon and after 1933 began making records for English Parlophone.

URSULEAC, VIORICA [so] (Czernowitz, Rumania, 1894 – Ehrwald, Austria, 1985) he daughter of a Greek Orthodox priest, Ursuleac studied at the Vienna Academy of Music and also in Berlin with Lilli Lehmann. Her debut was in September 1922 at Zagreb (Agram) as Charlotte in Werther, sung in Croatian. In 1924, she performed at the Frankfurt Opera (where she met the conductor Clemens Krauss, whom she later married) and at the Wiener Volksoper. In 1933, Ursuleac moved to the Berlin State Opera, where she remained until 1937. In that year she was engaged together with her husband by the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. She sang as a guest throughout the world, singing regularly at the Salzburg Festivals. Krauss and Ursuleac were very close friends with Richard Strauss and they performed several premieres of his operas including Arabella and Capriccio. She remained at the Munich Opera until 1944. 

WITTRISCH, MARCEL [te] (Antwerp, 1901 – Stuttgart, 1955) ometimes compared to his better-known contemporary, Richard Tauber, Marcel Wittrisch possessed a bright voice with a lovely tamber and effortless top notes. After vocal study in Germany and Italy, he made his debut as Konrad at the Halle Opera House in Marschner’s Hans Heiling. He debuted in 1929 in Berlin, where his career was centered during the next fifteen years. He began by singing light roles such as Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, appearing also in that part at Covent Garden in 1931. By the late 1930s, his voice had darkened sufficiently for him to perform Lohengrin at the Bayreuth Festival in 1937 and after the war, he sang both Siegmund and Parsifal. He made over 400 recordings, beginning with a few for Vox in 1926, then switching to HMV for the rest of his career. Wittrisch also appeared in at least six movies.

RICHARD STRAUSS

Richard Strauss (1864–1949) wrote his first composition at the age of six—it was a song. During his lifetime he was to write just over 200. He met his wife, the soprano Pauline de Ahna, in 1894, and for about twenty years he accompanied her in recitals, gaining an invaluable insight into the possibilities of the soprano voice. Alan Jefferson, in his helpful book The Lieder of Richard Strauss (Cassell, London, 1971) tells us that “His Lieder, though often with piano accompaniment, were invariably visualized and composed with an orchestral support for the voice.”

The views of the critic Herman Klein (1856–1934) are worth quoting: “This composer is now in his 63rd year. He wrote his best songs when he was in his thirties, and latterly he has written scarcely any. In this, as in every other branch of composition, he is remarkable for the inequality of his work: now rising to heights so exalted that they almost merit the term “sublime”; now descending to a level of banality and emptiness incredible in a musician of such genius and resource. … But when he is brief he is almost invariably interesting; while he is simply a master of the art-song form, with the added merit of knowing perfectly how to write for the voice. His piano accompaniments, for the most part terribly difficult and intensely descriptive, are the work of one who is himself a consummate executant, without mercy for those who are not.” (Herman Klein, “The Singing of Lieder—V” in the Gramophone, May 1927.)

In her book Singer’s Pilgrimage (London, Grant Richards Ltd., 1923), Blanche Marchesi, a soprano who had worked out a way to tackle Wagner’s music successfully, turned the full force of her wrath upon Strauss: “No one who has not read the music of Ariadne, by Richard Strauss, the florid airs especially, or The Woman without a Shadow, can conceive what cruelty that music means to the human larynx.” Blanche’s mother, Mathilde Marchesi, routinely forbade any of her pupils to sing Strauss’s music—Melba waited until Madame Marchesi had died before she dared to add “Ständchen” to her repertoire!

STRAUSS AS ACCOMPANIST AND CONDUCTOR

Volume 92 of the Schweizerische Muzikzeitung (1952) included the reminiscences of the Viennese musicologist Alfred Orel, who turned the pages for Strauss at a Lieder recital in which the composer, as so often, accompanied Elisabeth Schumann: “When I opened the music of the first song Strauss said softly to me ‘You mustn’t look at the notes, for I play it quite differently’. And now I was able to savour an art of accompaniment at first hand such as I have never again experienced in the thirty years or so that have since passed. Such freedom and yet at the same time the highest precision in following the singer, whilst also guiding her interpretation, such support and then again the subtlest understanding of where she needed help, whether in allowing time for breathing, whether to avoid forcing her to exaggerate her own breath control, in short, such complete unity between singer and accompanist was probably never equaled. The printed notes were, in fact, repeatedly only an aide memoire for the composer, so to speak, vocal scores such as a singer might use when working with her repetiteur. Without actually becoming ‘orchestral’ he went far beyond the printed accompaniment and used the possibilities of the piano in an inimitable way. For instance I can remember that in Heimliche Aufforderung the well-known leaping runs of the piano began far lower down and therefore flowed in much quicker notes than as it is notated, most likely in order to bring out the contrast with the succeeding quiet quavers still more strongly. Doubling of the bass, enriching of the chords, all these Strauss employed on countless occasions…”. (Quoted in: Norman Del Mar, Richard Strauss: A Critical Commentary on his Life and Works, Vol. III, 1972.)

At least one recording exists that shows something of Strauss “composing” in public: in an off-the-air performance of “Breit’ über mein Haupt” he accompanies Anton Dermota, filling out the piano part by improvising as he goes along, so this recording is worthy of study. I find the result enthralling. Dermota’s voice is pleasant and his high notes are well placed, but his technique is too shaky for him to risk much in dynamic or tonal coloring (CD 1, Track 12).

Strauss also accompanies the tenor Robert Hutt in “Breit’ über mein Haupt”. In this 1920 recording Strauss does not extemporize: he does, however, arpeggiate chords and tends to lead with the left hand—as almost all pianists did in those days. Hutt is a Bayreuth tenor whose voice escaped the worst consequences of study with Julius Kniese. His tone is pleasant, brilliant on the high notes. He has a solid legato and elegant enunciation, and executes a good diminuendo on “deiner Augen Licht” (CD 1, Track 27). Strauss also accompanies Hutt in “Morgen!”. He begins in leisurely fashion, but soon increases the pace. Hutt wants to linger, while Strauss is eager to press on, so they are not always together. Strauss does not sentimentalize this lovely song (CD 1, Track 28).

The exuberant Wagnerian soprano Hilde Konetzni proves capable of toning herself down and enjoying herself in a delightfully teasing performance of “Schlechtes Wetter”. At the piano Strauss is in equally playful mood as he depicts rain and wind (CD 2, Track 7). He accompanies Lea Piltti in “Kling!”. Her pretty, though not perfectly supported voice is equal to the high tessitura of this joyful song, giving us some lovely soft high singing where required, and a triumphant high C. Strauss is playing with all the requisite brilliance and verve, adding a note or two here and there (CD 2, Track 19).

Composed in 1885, “Wozu noch, Mädchen” is one of the earliest songs in our collection. Alfred Poell was a distinguished baritone of the German school, his voice correctly trained and capable of some modulation. He rather misses the cunning insinuations of the text, but Strauss makes up for this by his graceful playing (CD 2, Track 20).

In six wonderful records made in the summer of 1920, Strauss accompanies Heinrich Schlusnus, the leading baritone of the Berlin Court Opera who had given his first Berlin Lieder recital in 1918. The influence of Battistini is evident in his Italianate approach to singing technique, rhythm, and expression. Schlusnus was a reserved personality and does not indulge in over-interpretation. On the first page of “Heimkehr” how beautifully he curves the phrase “zu dir kehrt heim mein Herz”, which begins with an octave leap from E to E, the upper note taken piano, and continuing with a light portamento. In the agitated middle section the voice rings out powerfully, only to return to exquisitely poised soft singing and a melting delivery of the last line of the poem. There was no metronome in the studio that day: singer and accompanist frequently slow down to enjoy a lovely phrase (CD 3, Track 3). Even Strauss is taxed by the difficult accompaniment to “Ich liebe dich” and there is no opportunity for him to do much in the way of arpeggiating or playing with the tempo. He plays all through with intensity and fire, exulting in the brilliant postlude (CD 3, Track 6). They take “Zueignung” at a fairly rapid tempo, but with plenty of rubato. At “Liebe macht die Herzen krank” there is a slight rallentando, then Strauss slows down even more, preparing to observe the marking con espressione on the next phrase, “habe Dank”. The next unmarked rallentando comes at “und du segnetest den Trank”, which Schlusnus sings in a honeyed mezza voce (CD 3, Track 1). There are several unwritten ritards in “Die Nacht”. Schlusnus begins sotto voce as indicated, perfectly realizing the arching phrase “aus den Bäumen schleicht sie leise”. The declamatory passage on C, “rücke näher, Seel’ an Seele” shows the perfect placing of the voice on the breath and the equalized vowels (CD 3, Track 2). In “Das Geheimnis” Strauss arpeggiates several chords and his foot is never far from the sustaining pedal. With its delicate and expressive use of the ritardando, this lovely performance is a joy, with a triumphant conclusion as Schlusnus rises to a ravishing high F-sharp, pianissimo (CD 3, Track 4). He infuses great feeling into the words and music of “Ruhe, meine Seele”, without any obvious external application of “interpretation”, yet bringing out the contrast between the quiet sections of the song and the dramatic middle section, which he declaims with easily ringing fortissimo. He climbs up to the high F-sharp, pianissimo, at “stiehlt sich lichter Sonnenschein”, and later rises to the same note fortissimo at “Herz und Hirn in Not”. The recording horn does not catch all Strauss’s highest notes, but he is playing sensitively and shows, in the third bar, how to split the chord that extends over a range of nearly three octaves (CD 3, Track 5). The recording Schlusnus made of “Liebeshymnus” in 1943 shows how much progress the great singer had made since beginning lessons with Louis Bachner in 1921. His warmly vibrant tones shimmer sunnily in the opening phrase “Heil jenem Tag” only to become soft and tender at “In deiner Augen Glanz verloren” (CD 3, Track 7).

We hear Strauss conducting Julius Patzak with great animation in “Heimliche Aufforderung” but without rushing or drowning the singer, and there are plenty of unwritten ritards. Patzak has a pleasant voice, reasonably well-trained, but not fully supported on the breath. On the phrase “dann lächle ich” [then I smile] his voice does smile, charmingly. Both he and Strauss know exactly how to pull back and lead into “und wandle hinaus in den Garten” (CD 2, Track 16).

EARLY SINGERS OF STRAUSS ON THE PHONOGRAPH

We have included early Berliner-G & T recordings of the contralto Elise Feinhals and the soprano Lotte Schloss for their historical interest. Both are singers of the second class, who had learned to sing up to a certain professional standard and enjoyed decent careers. Feinhals’s record of “Ruhe, meine Seele” (although she is occasionally flat) is an artistic attempt to wrestle with a difficult modern song (written in 1894) (CD 1, Track 17). Lotte Schloss has a pretty, light soprano voice and I find her charming in both “Ständchen” and “Morgen!” (CD 2, Tracks 24 and 25).

Some critics believe that the earliest singers who recorded Strauss songs had not yet grasped the authentic performance style required: if we had records of Strauss accompanying Pauline de Ahna we might be in a position to refute this assertion. As it is, the records Strauss made with Heinrich Schlusnus and Robert Hutt in 1920 suggest that he was satisfied with their style. Most of the singers in our collection are opera singers who had inherited a sound nineteenth-century German performing tradition: they have a steady vocal emission, often based on the old Italian method of breathing. They are not obsessed with individual words: they seek to maintain a fluid legato line while enunciating clearly and naturally, without exaggeration. They follow an old style of enunciation in German singing: in such a phrase such as “sie wieder einen” they usually elide, joining the “r” of “wieder” to the “e” of “einen”, whereas modern performers would separate the two words with a glottal stop. Modern authorities on the German language disapprove of the elisions of these old singers, but if the practice was so generally observed as these records demonstrate, the singers must have been observing cultured taste of the period. (It would be interesting to know who first introduced this Franco-Italian style of eliding into German singing—one suspects Garcia pupils like Pauline Viardot, Mathilde Marchesi, and Julius Stockhausen, all of whom taught in Austria or Germany—and who decided that it should be frowned upon.)

Our singers’ voices are beautiful and they wish to sing beautifully. They know when to speed up and when to slow down, and they use portamento to round off their phrasing with elegance. Even when they do not slavishly follow the letter of the score, they all realize the spirit of the music. The idea that one should only sing exactly what the composer has written in the score, although apparently logical and already current in some critical circles while Rossini was still alive, is unhistorical if applied to most music written before 1914, as recordings of Strauss playing and conducting will demonstrate. After the First World War a puritanical severity began to make itself felt in the concert hall: rubato and portamento were frowned upon, and singers began to sacrifice the musical line to an exaggerated pronunciation of the words. (As just one example, Marian Anderson made a beautifully-sung recording of Schubert’s “Der Tod und das Mädchen” in which she even includes the optional low D, but without any portamento and all in the strictest time.) Strauss himself must have felt that times were changing, for in 1944 he does not lead with the left hand so much as he did in 1920, and he arpeggiates fewer chords. We have come a long way since the time when Schubert and the tenor Michael Vogl made Schubert’s songs known in the convivial atmosphere of private homes. We can imagine that a similar spirit would have imbued the first “public” performance of “Der Erlkönig” given by Vogl at the Kärntnerthortheater, Vienna, on 7 March 1821.) In contrast, when I lived in London in the 1960s, the Lieder recital had become a sacred rite: woe betide any luckless concert-goer who turned over a page during a song!

Many of these old records enshrine aspects of “performance practice” that it is important we should hear. In Strauss’s “Ständchen” many singers double the length of the high A-sharp on “hoch glühn”, and it is believed that Strauss himself urged Elisabeth Schumann to do this. In their record of “Zueignung”, Schlusnus and Strauss draw out the two bars of “heilig, heilig an’s Herz dir sank” to at least double their marked length, and most other singers of their day follow suit. In “Traum durch die Dämmerung” many singers and pianists introduce tiny pauses to mark the end of one stanza and the beginning of another. Elasticity of tempo is the norm. These opera singers brought to Strauss their experience with Mozart and Verdi.

In the late-nineteenth century some opera singers, like Amélie Materna, decided to give Lieder recitals when they had lost their voices. This set an unfortunate precedent, for others followed suit. It is true that the Lieder singer may not need to have an “operatic” voice of generous volume, for in intimate recital conditions it is more important to be able to give all the required contrasts of dynamics and color, which, however, no singer can do unless equipped with a good voice, a sound technique and profound musicianship.

EIGHTEEN OUTSTANDING SINGERS

All the records chosen for this compilation seem to us satisfying performances of Strauss songs, each singer bringing his own particular gifts to illuminate the score. I should like to draw the listener’s attention to these outstanding examples:

 

Frances Alda: Morgen! (John Henry Mackay), Op. 27, No. 4 (in the key of G) (CD 1, Track 1)

Alda’s glory is her head register, exquisitely employed in “Morgen!”. Everything is poised on the breath, and her enunciation of the words (in not perfectly idiomatic German) is remarkable, the balance between words and legato perfectly realized. Her declamation of the verse “Stumm werden wir uns in die Augen schauen”, with equalized vowels and limpid consonants, is a model. The cellist, Gutia Casini, uses portamento exactly as any nineteenth-century cellist would have done, and Alda follows suit with her own, more delicately applied portamento di voce. In this song Claire Dux and Grete Stückgold are her only serious soprano rivals. Dux’s violinist plays well, but Dux surpasses him, spinning a seamless line with her portamento less swooningly applied. Her diction is extraordinarily limpid and her utterance of the last six bars is a singing lesson: every word is clearly enunciated without disturbing the poise of the legato (CD 1, Track 13). Grete Stückgold’s beautiful record is yet another lesson in singing and style (CD 3, Track 22).

 

Rosette Anday: Befreit (Richard Dehmel), Op. 39, No. 4 (in the key of C-sharp minor) (CD 1, Track 2)

There are Lieder singers who possess neither voices of ravishing beauty nor immaculate singing techniques, but if they can bring a song to life they are accepted by critics as “specialists”. Anday was only about twenty-five when this record was made but sounds older. Although her voice is intermittently hoarse and tremulous and not well supported, she is deeply moving, and commands a wide range of dynamics. She and her pianist are quite free with their rubato. This is a nineteenth-century style of interpretation, from which the song benefits.

 

David Bispham: To none will I e’er my love discover (Ich trage meine Minne), Op. 32, No. 1 (in the key of D-flat) (CD 1, Track 9)

The baritone David Bispham toured England and America for many years with song recitals, preferring to sing German songs in his own English translations. Strauss accompanied him in the orchestra and at the piano in New York in 1904. His singing is distinguished by a fine legato, his diction is clear, his high notes taken with the careful admixture of head voice typical of the old Italian school. He sings in fairly free time without losing the rhythm, uttering each word with due weight of meaning.

 

Jussi Björling: Morgen! (John Henry Mackay), Op. 27, No. 4 (in the key of G) (CD 1, Track 11)

The young Jussi Björling shows complete control over his touchingly fresh and pearly voice, encompassing some long phrases with ease. He takes the upper E, F-sharp, and G in a ravishing head voice; his limpid diction is a delight. In contrast, his exuberant performance of “Cäcilie” is thrilling (CD 1, Track 10).

 

Cloe Elmo: Serenata [Ständchen] Op. 17, No. 2 (in the key of D) (CD 1, Track 15)

This great operatic contralto brings “Ständchen” to vigorous, palpitating life with her bosomy intakes of breath, vibrant and richly plum-colored tones, full chest register, and brilliantly placed high notes. Her loving care for the words places her in the front rank of Lieder singers. She shares with Clara Butt and Conchita Supervia the power of telling a story in song: her vocal method is so secure that she can play with words without ever trespassing outside a finely-drawn legato line. Like many others, she alters a note in the last bar.

 

Dusolina Giannini: Heimliche Aufforderung (John Henry Mackay), Op. 27, No. 3 (in the key of B-flat) (CD 1, Track 21)

This celebrated Santuzza begins rather gustily, and is occasionally guilty of a throaty attack, but it is impossible not to be bowled over by her joyous and excited singing, the smile in the voice at “dann lächle ich” [then I smile], her brilliantly focused upper G at “Nein! Hebe die blinkende Schale”, and her scrupulous attention to Strauss’s dynamic markings. Despite occasionally precarious intonation, she puts more musical and dramatic imagination into this song than any of her rivals, and her record of “Ständchen” is also notable for her airy and playful manner, with a relaxed and judicious use of rubato (CD 1, Track 22). At the piano, Michael Raucheisen offers magnificent support with his “orchestral” style.

 

Gerhard Hüsch: Zueignung (Hermann von Gilm), Op. 10, No. 1 (in the key of A) (CD 1, Track 26)

Hüsch is a master singer. The voice is a rich, warm baritone, perfectly placed and supported, the registers expertly blended. The tone is vibrant without ever the hint of a wobble. Hüsch can sing effortlessly both high and low and provides everything the composer demands: the diminuendo at “die Herzen krank”, the slightly louder, faster and more emphatic attack of the second strophe, the piano religioso opening of the last strophe (marked mit Weihe—with dedication). The noble eloquence of the singing—much enhanced by the loving use of rallentando—the solid legato line, the aristocratic and musical enunciation of the text, and the perfectly executed long phrase “heilig, heilig an’s Herz dir sank” beginning on high F-sharp and ending on the low C-sharp, all place this interpretation on the highest pinnacle of vocal art.

 

Herbert Janssen: Die Nacht (Hermann von Gilm), Op. 10, No. 3 (in the key of B-flat) (CD 2, Track 1)

Janssen sings this lovely song with charm and true sentiment. He relies on a sound vocal method, musical feeling, an intense legato line, and beautiful diction for his pleasingly-felt interpretations, in which he always manages to be satisfyingly eloquent. His performance of “Pilgers Morgenlied” could also scarcely be bettered: he is in secure voice, with splendid high Gs, reducing his tone to a pleasing, warm softness when required. His attack is always clean and neat (CD 2, Track 3).

 

Alexander Kipnis: Traum durch die Dämmerung (Otto Julius Bierbaum), Op. 29, No. 1 (in the key of E) (CD 2, Track 5)

The wondrously rich bass voice is placed “in the mask” from the low B to the high E-natural. He has fully developed his head register, and can take all his high notes with ease and perfect focus, loudly or softly. Kipnis avails himself constantly of portamento di voce to spin a legato line. When he separates two words instead of eliding, as in “ich / eile nicht”, the attack on “eile” is made in the mask, not in the throat. This is a virtuoso performance, with its soft high E-flat on “schönsten Frau” and the beautifully vocalized E-flat and E-natural on “tief” (using Garcia’s recommended “ü” vowel), but Kipnis also charms us by his ecstatically self-satisfied air in a rather erotic song.

 

Lotte Lehmann: Mit deinen blauen Augen (Heinrich Heine), Op. 56, No. 4 (in the key of F) (CD 2, Track 9)

The Odeon company produced a great many Lieder records with bogus accompaniments by tea-shop trios and the like, which sold like hot cakes. However, as nobody is ever going to sing this song with anything like the style, charm, and charisma of Lehmann, or with her clear and unexaggerated diction, we must put up with it. With her lovely “Italian” voice (to quote Caruso), Lehmann molds words and music together in a solid line that sparkles and shines with the ever-changing colors in her tones.

 

John McCormack: Du meines Herzens Krönelein (Felix Dahn), Op. 21, No. 2 (in the key of F-sharp) (CD 2, Track 11)

Here we find no attempt at “intervention” in the modern style, just a simple, sweet declaration of love expressed in a flawless legato. McCormack’s singing is almost completely shorn of portamento, but in the second line of the poem he demonstrates how to effect a portamento on the consonant “l” in the downward octave leap of “Golde”, a legitimate and difficult feat. In “Allerseelen” he is more observant of the composer’s dynamic markings, offering an exquisite piano at “deiner süssen Blicke” and at the final repetition of “wie einst in Mai” (CD 2, Track 12). Edwin Schneider accompanies McCormack beautifully, his unfussy but meaningful playing complementing the tenor’s style. In McCormack’s singing, the rhythm is always scrupulously observed, but with an elasticity of time commanded only by the most musical singers.

 

Marie Olszewska: Ruhe, meine Seele (Karl Friedrich Henckell), Op. 27, No. 1 (in the key of B-flat) (CD 2, Track 15)

Olszewska gives the essential feeling of serenity, while conveying a sense of something hidden that disturbs the singer’s peace of mind. At “durch der Blätter dunkle Hülle” her pianissimo is exquisite. When the crescendo comes, “wie Brandung, wenn sie schwillt!” she rises magnificently to the occasion. Her tone is lovely, both on the higher notes (E-flat and E-natural) in head voice, and in her full, womanly chest register. On the repeated command “Ruhe, ruhe, meine Seele” she uses a bold portamento that enhances the effect. Her diction is clear without exaggeration.

 

Elisabeth Rethberg: Freundliche Vision (Otto Julius Bierbaum), Op. 48, No. 1 (in the key of D) (CD 2, Track 21)

Not allowing herself to be distracted by her inferior pianist, who for several bars mistakes the rhythmic pattern of the piano part, Rethberg launches serenely into an ideal performance of the song. She has a virtuoso command of dynamic modulation and can even execute a diminuendo on her pianissimo! What more could one ask? Well, perhaps Richard Tauber and Joseph Schwarz suggest an inner, controlled sensuality that reminds us that their “friendly vision” has an erotic side to it!

 

Lotte Schöne: Schlechtes Wetter (Heinrich Heine), Op. 69, No. 5 (in the key of F Minor) (CD 3, Track 8)

Strauss loved Lotte Schöne, a star of the Vienna State Opera, and accompanied her first song recital in Vienna. Her performance of “Schlechtes Wetter” could scarcely be bettered. Her voice flows freely, the low notes firm, the middle solidly placed, the high B-flat triumphant. She is eloquent without being fussy, and manages expertly Strauss’s habit of alternating quick, chatty recitative phrases with sustained melody. She exerts her seductive charm in “Ständchen” (CD 3, Track 9).

 

Elisabeth Schumann: Die heiligen drei Könige (Heinrich Heine), Op. 56, No. 6 (in the key of C) (CD 3, Track 15)

A glimpse of Schumann’s delightful way of telling a story, although her need to modify her vowels on the upper notes makes it essential to follow her with the text, otherwise we should never have known that the destination of the three wise men was “Bethlehem”. After his wife stopped singing, Schumann was the singer Strauss most loved to accompany. “Blauer Sommer” catches her at her vocal peak. Her lovely voice is solidly supported in the broadly arching phrases and in the clearly defined florid passages, like the gruppetto and triplet on “Ein goldnes Band” (CD 3, Track 11). “Muttertändelei”, a perky and gossipy song written for Schumann-Heink, suits Elisabeth Schumann, though the coloratura passages are slightly bumpy (CD 3, Track 14). In “All’ mein Gedanken” Schumann’s stodgy accompanist, Karl Alwin, is unable to differentiate between the staccato and legato passages. Schumann is in wonderful voice, and the microphone catches the full beauty of her light, creamy and brilliant medium register. She takes her high notes in head register, but her method is too constricting for these notes to be free—she tends to squeeze them out. Her breathing method was clavicular and gave no proper support to her voice, and her intakes of breath are noisy. Her voice smiles, and her experience in operetta stands her in good stead: her diction is crisp and eloquent (CD 3, Track 12). In “Hat gesagt!” she raises an uncomfortably low passage an octave higher, and this Strauss himself must have suggested (CD 3, Track 13).

 

Ernestine Schumann-Heink: Traum durch die Dämmerung (Otto Julius Bierbaum), Op. 29, No. 1 (in the key of F) (CD 3, Track 16)

At sixty-two Schumann-Heink is still in full control of her magnificent voice. Like Tauber, she has acquired an eloquence with both words and music that places her among the greatest Lied interpreters: every utterance seems absolutely spontaneous. Every word receives its due weight and imparts its due significance, but all is solidly based on a firm legato. Singing mostly in various degrees of piano, she achieves a lovely pianissimo on the E of “zu der schönsten Frau”.

 

Joseph Schwarz: Heimliche Aufforderung (John Henry Mackay), Op. 27, No. 3 (in the key of G) (CD 3, Track 17)

Schwarz’s luxuriously rich and beautiful baritone voice is equipped with a highly finished technique, and his singing always has a sustained inner musical tension, ready at any moment to burst into sensual outpourings. How beautifully he manages the transition between “und will an die Brust dir sinken”—marked ruhig (peacefully)—and “und deine Küsse trinken”—marked mit Seigerung (more intensively). How subtle, how meaningful are the erotic overtones of the “invitation” when at last it is voiced! Small matter, then, if this great singer occasionally fluffs an entry or fails to hold a note for its full length. In “Freundliche Vision” Schwarz employs a ravishing falsetto that is cunningly blended into his head voice. The very opening phrase is a lesson in how to place the words into the vocal line with limpid consonants and equalized vowels. The pianist reveals the hidden eloquence in what might on paper look like a monotonously repeated pattern (CD 3, Track 18).

 

Richard Tauber: Ständchen (Adolf Friedrich von Schack), Op. 17, No. 2 (in the key of F) (CD 3, Track 24)

Tauber has mastered the art of the Lieder singer: the voice, floating on the breath, is responsive to his every thought, and the flexibility of the “spun” tone ensures that the coloring of individual words never disturbs the legato of the musical phrase. Due weight is given to every poetic and musical idea, without exaggeration. Tauber might be extemporizing the song as he goes along. Mindful that the singer is inviting his beloved to open her door quietly, he serenades her in hushed tones, reserving his full power for the finale. Listeners should try not to be shocked by the small salon orchestra, but rather enter into the spirit of a performance in which everyone is having a good time. In “Freundliche Vision” we might have expected even more pianissimo, but all through there are masterly individual Tauber-touches (CD 3, Track 23). These delicate shadings make the late recordings of “Allerseelen” (CD 3, Track 25) and “Ich trage meine Minne” particularly precious: the voice shows some signs of the passage of time, but the technique and the art are as fresh as ever (CD 3, Track 26).

SOME MEMORABLE INDIVIDUAL INTERPRETATIONS

Among the many gems and surprises of this collection we discover Katharine Arkandy, a well-trained high soprano of the Germanic school, whose pure voice executes the most complicated florid passages in “Amor” with neatness and accuracy (CD 1, Track 5), while Erna Berger sings “Als mir dein Lied erklang” with ease and charm, declaiming words clearly in a high tessitura (CD 1, Track 7). Frieda Hempel, the Marschallin of the Berlin premiere of Der Rosenkavalier in 1911, and Selma Kurz, Vienna’s beloved lyric coloratura, both sing “Ständchen” in fresh, airy and light-hearted style, beginning softly, as indicated, and working gradually to a brilliant and unforced climax (Hempel: CD 1, Track 24). Kurz enjoys the partnership of Harold Craxton at the piano, his flawless playing an added attraction (CD 2, Track 8). Meta Seinemeyer’s voice sizzles with a subdued vibrato that enhances the sensuality of the poem and the music of “Traum durch die Dämmerung” (CD 3, Track 19). Among the Wagnerian sopranos, Florence Austral brings her warm medium register and brilliant high B to “Cäcilie” (CD 1, Track 6), while Florence Easton sings “Ich schwebe” winningly: “I float as though on angels’ wings, the earth scarcely hinders my foot”—and float indeed she does, vocally, with a light and witty touch, neglecting no detail of Strauss’s instructions (CD 1, Track 14). Kirsten Flagstad lends her majestic manner and golden voice to a touching performance of “Ach, Lieb’, ich muss nun scheiden” (CD 1, Track 18).

The contralto Ernestine Färber-Strasser gives us a lovely record of “Wiegenliedchen”, a song that shows off her technique in long phrases that sink down to the F-sharp below the treble stave, then ascend to the D, fourth line (CD 1, Track 16). In a distant recording of “Wiegenlied”, Elena Gerhardt is revealed at her best. The long flowing line, only occasionally demanding a forte, suits her technique and style. Her tone is fresh and warm and her command of the head voice allows her to sustain the long legato line. Her illustrious accompanist, Arthur Nikisch, is distantly recorded, but seems to be doing interesting things (CD 1, Track 20). Sabine Kalter was forty-seven when she recorded “Allerseelen”. Her lovely voice is still rich and round and her interpretation is sensitive but unfussy, in contrast to her irritating accompanist, Gerald Moore, whose lack of a true legato is emphasized by his mannerism of inserting tiny pauses before notes, a substitute for real expression (CD 2, Track 4). In “Befreit”, Margarete Klose is rather too sad, but quite moving. She and her superb accompanist, Michael Raucheisen, have studied the music deeply and both of them “breathe” between phrases in the nineteenth-century manner (CD 2, Track 6). Strauss dedicated “Mit deinen blauen Augen” to his mother, and it is a pleasure to hear in it the magnificent contralto voice—warm and motherly—of Margarethe Ober, on the opera stage an Azucena and Fidès (CD 2, Track 14).

Among the offerings by lyric tenors we have Peter Anders in a memorable performance of “Ich trage meine Minne”, with perfectly placed tones, broad phrasing and flawless diction (beautiful liaisons, no glottal stops) (CD 1, Track 3). Giuseppe Anselmi, known as “il tenore delle dame”—the ladies’ tenor—sings “La notte” (Die Nacht), very possibly in his own Italian translation, with charm of diction and phrasing, and with some typical touches of virtuosity in shadings. He prolongs several sustained notes and transposes some low-lying phrases an octave higher, changes frequently authorized by Strauss (CD 1, Track 4). Heddle Nash was a delightful song singer, and the “Serenade” shows him in good form. His singing is replete with delicate shading and witty innuendo, and winning boyish charm (CD 2, Track 13). Leo Slezak’s youthful performance of “Ständchen” is appealing and full of expressive detail. He has a good legato, and his diction is clear—there is a trace of a regional accent. He enunciates the words engagingly, so we can forgive him for changing some of them (CD 3, Track 20)! Slezak was past his best in 1929, but the soft singing in his touchingly beautiful “Morgen!” puts many rivals to shame (CD 3, Track 21). In “Heimliche Aufforderung” Marcel Wittrisch’s invitation to the young lady to meet him by the rose bushes is hectoring rather than charming: however, this is certainly a thrilling performance, if lacking in sensuality (CD 3, Track 28).

Among the Wagnerian tenors, Heinrich Hensel offers a fine performance of “Heimliche Aufforderung” despite touches of the “Bayreuth bark” in his occasionally over-stressed enunciation and staccato delivery. His voice is flexible, he has a fine feeling for rubato, and he can manage a touching pianissimo (CD 1, Track 25). Helge Roswaenge is surprisingly successful in “Ach, Lieb’, ich muss nun scheiden”, an interpretation full of meaningful shadings that never sacrifice the musical line (CD 2, Track 23).

 

Friedrich Schorr descends from Valhalla and woos us with the intimate “Traum durch die Dämmerung”, a fine performance including some excellent soft singing (CD 3, Track 10).

 

Omissions

We listened to far more recordings than could fit on to just 3 CDs, and choosing those to omit was often painful. There were records of unusual or less successful songs, which seemed to call for inclusion, but which we rejected because we felt that the song or the singing was simply not appealing. These included examples by Norman Allin, Ivar Andrésen, Carl Burrian, Karl Jörn, Marjorie Lawrence, Lauritz Melchior, Heinrich Rehkemper, Marcella Sembrich, Reinald Werrenrath, and others. We have also excluded three singers whom Strauss apparently admired but whose records did not meet with our standards: Maria Jeritza, Ernst Kraus, and Franz Steiner.

© Michael Aspinall, 2014

A NOTE FROM THE PRODUCERS

Richard Strauss was not fully accepted into the pantheon of great Lieder composers with Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, and Mahler until after his death in 1949, even though most of his Lieder output dates from the 19th century and predates any of his famous operas. The early days of recording saw little of Strauss’s Lieder immortalized, but from what we can hear, his songs were viewed as charming and sometimes flashy tidbits like the songs of Paulo Tosti or Reynaldo Hahn. We hear Giuseppe Anselmi singing “Die Nacht” in Italian just as he sang songs by Tosti, Mendelssohn, or Grieg. In the same casual style, Leo Slezak, in his first recording of “Ständchen”, sings with a youthful exuberance uncharacteristic of his later Lieder efforts, even changing a few words. It is worth noting that the great Dutch Lieder specialist, Julia Culp recorded none of Strauss’s Lieder, and Elena Gerhardt in her 1907 and 1911 recording sessions recorded only three. The two earliest-born singers to commit a Strauss song to wax were Lillian Nordica and David Bispham, both born in 1857. Nordica’s recording of “Ständchen”, sung in an indecipherable English translation, is one of her least successful efforts. David Bispham’s rendering of “Ich trage meine Minne” also in English translation is, on the other hand, surprisingly well sung and consequently merits inclusion here. Marcella Sembrich, born in 1858, also recorded “Ständchen,” but while her singing is lovely as always, she simply had no affinity for the “modern” aspects of Strauss’s music.

Singers born in the next two generations had considerably more success with his songs, but in the early years of the century, record companies tended to release the same few Strauss titles over and over again: “Ständchen“, “Morgen!”, “Traum durch die Dämmerung”, and “Heimliche Aufforderung”. After the First World War, however, we begin to see greater variety in the titles being recorded. But it seems clear that even during this time of increased popularity of his songs, they were still being viewed as lovely vocal vehicles, but not high art. During the 1930s, when His Master’s Voice began producing multi-disc sets of Schubert, Brahms, and Wolf Lieder sung by the luminaries of the day, Strauss received little attention, championed mainly by Heinrich Schlusnus and Elisabeth Schumann and ignored completely by such notables as Karl Erb and Ria Ginster.

Strauss’s eventual acceptance into the hallowed group of great Lieder composers was no doubt hastened along in the early 1950s by the enthusiastic reception of his Four Last Songs, premiered by Kirsten Flagstad eight months after Strauss’s death. It wasn’t long before they became widely performed, and, by extension, his songs as a whole began to gain acceptance as high art.

During Strauss’s lifetime, his songs were viewed as extremely variable in their quality and, unlike his predecessors, Strauss rarely used great poetry as texts for his songs. His most famous songs are set to the words of late 19th century poets such as Karl Henckell, Heinrich Hart, Richard Dehmel, and John Henry Mackay, who were as well known for their socialist politics as their poetry. It is the relative absence of great poets in Strauss’s choices for song texts that should be noted here rather than the presence of indifferent poets. Wilhelm Müller, who wrote the words to Die schöne Müllerin, is remembered primarily because Schubert set his poems to music.

Strauss himself said something quite revealing about the variability of his songs. When asked by a correspondent in 1893 to say something explanatory about his creative process, Strauss replied: “For months I have had no desire to compose; presently, one evening, I open a book of poems; I turn over the leaves; one of the poems arrests my attention, and in many cases, before I have read it over carefully, a musical idea comes to me. I sit down and in ten minutes the complete song is done. If at such a moment, when the cup is full to the brim, I happen on a poem which approximately corresponds with the musical idea that has come to me, the new opus is ready in a moment. But if as unfortunately happens very often, I do not find the right poem, I nevertheless yield to the creative impulse and set to music any random poem that happens to be at all suitable for a musical setting but the process is slow, the result is artificial, the melody has a viscid flow, and I have to draw on all my command of technical resources in order to achieve something that will stand the test of self-criticism. All this happens because at the decisive moment the steel does not meet the flint… .” (Richard Strauss: The Man and His Works, Henry T. Finck, Little Brown & Co., 1917, p. 286/7). So we have Strauss’s own word for the fact that he would continue composing even when the muse was not with him. What he did not say is: which of his songs resulted from a flash of inspiration and which ones were created from the painful process he described?

Strauss wrote over 200 songs and about fifty of them are still performed—a pretty good percentage. Schubert wrote over 600 songs and no more than 100 are commonly performed, except by those Lieder specialists who set out to record all of his songs, that being a sort of Mount Everest of the world of Lieder.

On the subject of Strauss’s texts, it is worth asking whether good poems make better songs or whether indifferent poems make poorer songs. Sir Michael Tippett said in the concluding essay in The History of Song, edited by Denis Stevens, Hutchinson & Co., 1960: “The moment the composer begins to create the musical verses of his song, he destroys our appreciation of the poem as poetry, and substitutes an appreciation of his music as song. …. As soon as we sing any poetry to a recognizable melody we have at that instant left the art of poetry for the art of music. … If the poem is very fine in its own right and very well known, then we imagine sometimes that we are still appreciating the poetry when it has become song, but I think this is an illusion.” If Lieder were not viewed in such a reverential way as high art, the quality of Strauss’s texts would not trouble anyone. We are quite accustomed in the world of opera and oratorio to the redemption of banal words by a good tune. And good tunes are what you will hear in this compilation—forty songs in eighty-two performances by fifty-seven singers.

We have chosen to arrange the songs by singer in alphabetical order, also providing an alphabetical listing by song title at the end of this booklet. Since this arrangement juxtaposes recordings of widely varying sonic quality, an effort has been made to adjust the level of each recording to maintain a consistent listening perception. All of the commercially issued recordings have been carefully transferred from original discs, with the Björling and Flagstad selections being transferred from quiet surface vinyl pressings of the original masters. Each record has been transferred at what we believe to be the correct pitch, using the stylus size that yielded the clearest vocal sound and the least obtrusive amount of surface noise. Three particular recordings are so scarce that they may well exist in only one original pressing. We were in fact surprised to locate them and very pleased to present them here for the first time in reissue: David Bispham’s 1904 G&T of “Ich trage meine Minne”; Sabine Kalter’s 1938 unpublished HMV of “Allerseelen”; and Elisabeth Schumann’s 1919 Odeon of “Blauer Sommer”. We would like to thank William Breslin, Owen Williams, and Herbert Gruy for making these rare discs available to us.

ALPHABETICAL LISTING OF THE SONGS INCLUDED IN THIS SET

Ach, Lieb’, ich muss nun scheiden, Op. 21, No. 3 (text by Felix Ludwig Julius Dahn)

Kirsten Flagstad: CD 1, Track 18; Helge Roswaenge: CD 2, Track 23

All’ mein Gedanken, Op. 21, No. 1 (text by Felix Ludwig Julius Dahn)

Elisabeth Schumann: CD 3, Track 12

Allerseelen, Op. 10, No. 8 (text by Hermann von Gilm)

Sabine Kalter: CD 2, Track 4; John McCormack: CD 2, Track 12; Richard Tauber: CD 3, Track 25

Als mir dein Lied erklang, Op. 68, No. 4 (text by Clemens Maria Wenzeslaus von Brentano)

Erna Berger: CD 1, Track 7

Amor, Op. 68, No. 5 (text by Clemens Maria Wenzeslaus von Brentano)

Katherine Arkandy: CD 1, Track 5

Befreit, Op. 39, No. 4 (text by Richard Fedor Leopold Dehmel)

Rosette Anday: CD 1, Track 2; Margarete Klose: CD 2, Track 6

Blauer Sommer, Op. 31, No. 1 (text by Karl Busse)

Elisabeth Schumann: CD 3, Track 11

Breit’ über mein Haupt, Op. 19, No. 2 (text by Adolf Friedrich von Schack)

Anton Dermota: CD 1, Track 12; Robert Hutt: CD 1, Track 27

Cäcilie, Op. 27, No. 2 (text by Heinrich Hart)

Florence Austral: CD 1, Track 6; Jussi Björling: CD 1, Track 10

Das Geheimnis, Op. 17, No. 3 (text by Adolf Friedrich von Schack)

Heinrich Schlusnus: CD 3, Track 4

Die heiligen drei Könige, Op. 56, No.6 (text by Heinrich Heine)

Elisabeth Schumann: CD 3, Track 15

Die Nacht, Op. 10, No. 3 (La notte) (text by Hermann von Gilm)

Giuseppe Anselmi: CD 1, Track 4; Herbert Janssen: CD 2, Track 1; Heinrich Schlusnus: CD 3, Track 2

Du meines Herzens Krönelein, Op. 21, No. 2 (text by Felix Ludwig Julius Dahn)

John McCormack: CD 2, Track 11

Einerlei, Op. 69, No. 3 (text by Karl Joachim Friedrich Ludwig von Arnim)

Marcella Roeseler: CD 2, Track 22

Freundliche Vision, Op. 48, No. 1 (text by Otto Julius Bierbaum)

Elisabeth Rethberg: CD 2, Track 21; Joseph Schwarz: CD 3, Track 18; Richard Tauber: CD 3, Track 23

Frühlingsfeier, Op. 56, No. 5 (text by Heinrich Heine)

Viorica Ursuleac: CD 3, Track 27

Gesang der Apollopriesterin, Op. 33, No. 2 (text by Emanuel von Bodman)

Rose Pauly: CD 2, Track 18

Hat gesagt – bleibt’s nicht dabei, Op. 36, No. 3 (text by Volkslieder)

Elisabeth Schumann: CD 3, Track 13

Heimkehr, Op. 15, No. 5 (text by Adolf Friedrich von Schack)

Heinrich Schlusnus: CD 3, Track 3

Heimliche Aufforderung, Op. 27, No. 3 (text by John Henry Mackay)

Dusolina Giannini: CD 1, Track 21; Heinrich Hensel: CD 1, Track 25; Julius Patzak: CD 2, Track 16; Joseph Schwarz: CD 3, Track 17; Marcel Wittrisch: CD 3, Track 28

Hymnus, Op. 33, No. 3 (text by Friedrich Gustav Schilling)

Herbert Janssen: CD 2, Track 2

Ich liebe dich, Op. 37, No. 2 (text by Detlev von Liliencron)

Heinrich Schlusnus: CD 3, Track 6

Ich schwebe, Op. 48, No. 2 (text by Karl Friedrich Henckell)

Florence Easton: CD 1, Track 14

Ich trage meine Minne, Op. 32, No. 1 (text by Karl Friedrich Henckell)

Peter Anders: CD 1, Track 3; David Bispham: CD 1, Track 9; Richard Tauber: CD 3, Track 26

Kling!, Op. 48, No. 3 (text by Karl Friedrich Henckell)

Lea Piltti: CD 2, Track 19

Liebeshymnus, Op. 32, No. 3 (text by Karl Friedrich Henckell)

Karl Hammes: CD 1, Track 23; Heinrich Schlusnus: CD 3, Track 7

Mit deinen blauen Augen, Op. 56, No. 4 (text by Heinrich Heine)

Lotte Lehmann: CD 2, Track 9; Margarethe Ober: CD 2, Track 14

Morgen!, Op. 27, No. 4 (text by John Henry Mackay)

Frances Alda: CD 1, Track 1; Jussi Björling: CD 1, Track 11; Claire Dux: CD 1, Track 13; Robert Hutt: CD 1, Track 28; Lotte Schloss: CD 2, Track 25; Leo Slezak: CD 3, Track 21; Grete Stückgold: CD 3, Track 22

Muttertändelei, Op. 43, No. 2 (text by Gottfried August Bürger)

Elisabeth Schumann: CD 3, Track 14

Pilgers Morgenlied, Op. 33, No. 4 (text by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

Herbert Janssen: CD 2, Track 3

Ruhe, meine Seele, Op. 27, No. 1 (text by Karl Friedrich Henckell)

Elise Feinhals: CD 1, Track 17; Maria Olszewska: CD 2, Track 15; Heinrich Schlusnus: CD 3, Track 5

Schlechtes Wetter, Op. 69, No. 5 (text by Heinrich Heine)

Hilde Konetzni: CD 2, Track 7; Lotte Schöne: CD 3, Track 8

Ständchen, Op. 17, No. 2 (text by Adolf Friedrich von Schack)

Cloe Elmo: CD 1, Track 15; Dusolina Giannini: CD 1, Track 22; Frieda Hempel: CD 1, Track 24; Selma Kurz: CD 2, Track 8; Heddle Nash: CD 2, Track 13; Lotte Schloss: CD 2, Track 24; Lotte Schöne: CD 3, Track 9; Leo Slezak: CD 3, Track 20; Richard Tauber: CD 3, Track 24

Traum durch die Dämmerung, Op. 29, No. 1 (text by Otto Julius Bierbaum)

Alexander Kipnis: CD 2, Track 5; Friedrich Schorr: CD 3, Track 10; Ernestine Schumann-Heink: CD 3, Track 16; Meta Seinemeyer: CD 3, Track 19

Verführung, Op. 33, No. 1 (text by John Henry Mackay)

Rose Pauly: CD 2, Track 17

Wiegenlied, Op. 41, No. 1 (text by Richard Fedor Leopold Dehmel)

Emmy Bettendorf: CD 1, Track 8; Elena Gerhardt: CD 1, Track 20; Emmi Leisner: CD 2, Track 10

Wiegenliedchen, Op. 49, No. 3 (text by Richard Fedor Leopold Dehmel)

Ernestine Färber-Strasser: CD 1, Track 16

Winterweihe, Op. 48, No. 4 (text by Karl Friedrich Henckell)

Hermann Jadlowker: CD 1, Track 29

Wozu noch, Mädchen, Op. 19, No. 1 (text by Adolf Friedrich von Schack)

Alfred Poell: CD 2, Track 20

Zueignung, Op. 10, No. 1 (text by Hermann von Gilm)

Kirsten Flagstad: CD 1, Track 19; Gerhard Hüsch: CD 1, Track 26; Heinrich Schlusnus: CD 3, Track 1