Johann Sebastian
BACH (1685-1750)
Cantata No.208 Hunt - Schafe
können sicher weiden
With Niedermayer and Reznicek (flutes)
Maurer (cello) and Ahlgrim (harpsichord)
Recorded 1946
Georg Frideric
HANDEL (1685-1759)
L’Allegro, Il Penseroso ed Il Moderato
– First and Chief…Sweet Bird
With Niedermayer (flute)/Vienna Philharmonic
Orchestra/Josef Krips, recorded 1946
Wolfgang
Amadeus MOZART
(1756-1791)
Le Nozze di Figaro – Porgi amor and
Dove sono
With Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Herbert
von Karajan, recorded 1950
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN
(1770-1827)
Fidelio – Ach wär’ ich schon
With Philharmonia Orchestra/Alceo Galliera
, recorded 1950
Giacomo PUCCINI
(1858-1924)
Gianni Schicchi – O mio babbino caro
With Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Herbert
von Karajan, recorded 1948
Madama Butterfly – Un bel di vedremo
Engelbert HUMPERDINCK
(1854-1921)
Hänsel und Gretel – Dance Duet;
Brüderchen, komm tanz
With Irmgard Seefried (soprano)/ Philharmonia
Orchestra/Josef Krips, recorded 1947
Evening Prayer; Der kleine Sandmann
bin ich…Abends, will ich schlafen gehn
Richard STRAUSS
(1864-1949)
Der Rosenkavalier- Presentation of the
Rose Herrgott in Himmel…Mir ist die
Ehre wiederfahren
With Irmgard Seefried (soprano)/ Vienna
Philharmonic Orchestra/Herbert von Karajan,
recorded 1947
Franz SCHUBERT
(1797-1828)
An die Musik
Die Junge Nonne
Der Musensohn
With Edwin Fischer (piano), recorded
1952
TRADTIONAL
‘S Schätzli
With Gerald Moore (piano), recorded
1951
Franz LEHÁR
(1870-1948)
Die Lustige Witwe – Viljalied
The words of a character
in a terrible British film of the 1930s
came back to haunt me as I listened
to this disc – "By Jove this is
a rum affair and no mistake." There
is minimal track-listing and no information
about source material. All however derive
from either 78 or early LP recordings
and presumably the 1953 cut-off date
is related to copyright issues. It’s
in effect an old-fashioned ‘Best Of’,
or perhaps ‘Some Of the Best Of’, with
a leavening of popular songs to balance
the Mozart, Puccini and Strauss.
Of course it’s only
enlightening to meet some of Schwarzkopf’s
less well-known recordings - her fluent
and eventful Handel, her charm in ‘S
Schätzli and her grave and powerful
Die Junge Nonne with Edwin Fischer’s
memorably adamantine support. Then there
is her Figaro, with Karajan in Vienna
in 1950 – and no room for her fellow
artists Kunz and Jurinac. Of the two
arias in the compilation Dove sono
is relatively brisk and marginally the
less successful. Her Puccini is elegant,
eloquent and controlled and very beautiful
even if Un bel di sounds rather
over-precise. The extract from Rosenkavalier
comes from three 78s (LX 1225-7) with
her colleague, the adorable Irmgard
Seefried, and recorded once again in
Vienna. The Humperdinck with Krips is
full of brio and charm but An die
Musik is full of ticks and pops.
Which brings us to the transfers. They
can’t, I’m afraid, be recommended. Compressed
and airless they seem to be taken from
LP copies and suffer the problems of
inherent damage (as with An die Musik,
pops and ticks) and a subterranean
acoustic. This is really more of a souvenir
than a genuine proposition.
Jonathan Woolf
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf 