Liselotte Selbiger’s life was ruptured
as a result of the rise of the Nazis
but she managed to develop an important
career in her adopted homeland of Denmark.
She was born in Berlin and began musical
life as a cellist before switching to
harpsichord. She left Germany in 1935
and moved to Copenhagen and shortly
before her 1939 solo debut went briefly
to study with Wanda Landowska. She continued
to give recitals, even under the occupation,
until another flight, this time to Sweden
in 1943, became imperative. She escaped
in the bottom of a fishing boat, carrying
poison and knowing that her parents
had committed suicide in Berlin rather
than face a concentration camp. She
returned to Denmark after the War’s
end, recorded for radio and on disc
and toured, but gradually illness took
its toll and her career trailed off.
Though she absorbed
certain of Landowska’s precepts on ornamentation
it’s quite clear that she took a quite
different path from the Polish pioneer
– and whilst this does relate to pedalling,
sonority and theatrical projection it
also concerns a more equable and less
temperamental approach to the repertoire,
something that the German harpsichordist
Alice Ehlers had also espoused in her
recordings.
This is the second
of Danacord’s recordings devoted to
her memory – the first was all-Bach
– and it comprises a single disc with
a "bonus" of just over half
an hour’s worth. Danacord has been assiduous
in tracking down her commercial Columbias
and equally in getting access to some
of her very many radio broadcasts. This
material suffers from a few attendant
problems but they are minor in the context
of preserved early 1950s broadcasts
and attest to the archive-minded nature
of Scandinavian broadcasters.
The repertoire is fairly
central and there are no examples –
if any such survive – of her comradely
association with chamber partners. But
we do get some Purcell, quite forceful
in its opening movement, but increasingly
stylishly done and some fine Couperin.
The commercial discs do have some shellac
crackle but we can still appreciate
her lightness of touch and delicacy
of articulation. There is more Bach
in this set to join the material on
the earlier volume; she’s a thoroughly
effective exponent of the Two-Part Inventions
and plays a selection of the Preludes
and Fugues – in good sound – with commitment.
Her Scarlatti is buoyant and colourful
and she plays the dramatic Toccata in
D minor with real élan.
I enjoyed her Rameau,
with its verve and rhythmic incision
and a fine sense of delicate tracery
in Le Rappel des Oiseaux of the
Suite in E minor and of robust wit in
the famous Tambourin. Her Couperin Passacaille
is also impressive. We also have examples
of her clavichord playing in some J
S (Preludes for beginners BWV933-938)
and C P E Bach. This was rather tightly
recorded by Denmark Radio and this close-up
perspective can reduce subtlety of colouration
but it’s a more than pleasing adjunct
to Selbiger’s keyboard artistry.
There are some fine
notes, to which I’m indebted, and a
really informed sense of commitment
to the restoration of Selbiger’s legacy
on disc.
Jonathan Woolf