Elisabeth Schwarzkopf sings Lieder by Wolf, Schubert, Strauss, Purcell, Arne & Quilter Elisabeth Schwarzkopf & Michael Raucheisen

• 1 Mignon I Heiß mich nicht Reden 03:25
• 2 Mignon II Nur wer die Sehnsucht Kennt 02:17
• 3 Mignon III So laßt mich Scheinen 04:00
• 4 Philine Singet nicht in Trauertönen 03:14
• 5 Mignon Kennst Du das Land, wo die Zitronen Blühen 06:54
• 6 Epiphanias Die heiligen drei König' 04:38
• 7 Die Zigeunerin Am Kreuzweg da lausche Ich 02:45
• 8 Nachtzauber No. 8 Hörst du nicht die Quellen Gehen 03:55
• 9 Vedi quanto adoro, D 510 04:09
• 10 Misero pargoletto, D 42 03:41
• 11 Wiegenlied, Op. 41,1 04:24
• 12 Schlechtes Wetter, Op. 69,5 02:16
• 13 Hat gesagt - Bleibt's nicht dabei, Op. 36,3 01:56
• 14 Music for a While 04:15
• 15 The Blessed Virgin's Expostulation 07:27
• 16 Where the bee sucks there suk I 01:52
• 17 Drink to me only with thine Eyes 03:16
• Total Runtime 01:04:24

Info for Elisabeth Schwarzkopf sings Lieder by Wolf, Schubert, Strauss, Purcell, Arne & Quilter

A document out of the ordinary: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf’s Lied recordings with her accompanist Michael Raucheisen, made on 6 January 1958 at the RIAS studios in Berlin, are an impressive example of the fruitful cooperation between these two artists. They performed together as early as 1942, at the beginning of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf’s glittering career, and more than one and a half decades later this artistic partnership drew to a close with these recordings.

These interpretations of selected songs by Wolf, Schubert and Strauss, made available for the first time, reveal new facets of her creative art. The CD is completed with music by Purcell, Arne and Quilter – Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Michael Raucheisen at the height of their abilities.

„Audite has obtained access to the original tapes for these 1958 recording sessions that Elisabeth Schwarzkopf made with pianist Michael Raucheisen for RIAS Berlin. The monaural sound is quite good though rather dry, as was typical for the time. There are some moments of distortion to remind us that the Sources, though original, were not in perfect condition. The song texts are in the original languages only (German, of course, for the Wolf, Schubert, and Strauss that make up the bulk of the program; English for the unexpected selections by Purcell, Arne, and Quilter). The notes dwell mostly on Schwarzkopf's career (a bit too indulgently), making reference to the program material only when it has a bearing on her artistic development.

Beyond this what can one say about an artist whose position is so firmly established? We hear the 43-year-old Schwarzkopf near the peak of her powers, which should be self-recommending to her admirers seeking to fill out their collections with as yet unheard performances. For the general collector, though, her commercial releases from that period will probably suffice.“ (American Record Guide)

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, soprano
Michael Raucheisen, piano

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
In 1947 a brilliant generation of Austro-German singers represented the Vienna State Opera for a short season at Covent Garden. Among those known to London audiences from before the war were Maria Cebotari and Hans Hotter; new were Anton Dermota, Erich Kunz and an array of sopranos headed by Hilde Gueden, Sena Jurinac, Emmy Loose, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Irmgard Seefried and Ljuba Welitsch. For one famous evening Richard Tauber joined the cast of Don Giovanni before entering the hospital in which he died four months later. It was a season which, more than any other event at the time, reassured opera-goers that traditions survived and that singing of real distinction, even greatness, might yet be heard in the postwar world.

The Donna Elvira at these performances was Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (born in 1915), who was singled out in reviews for the warmest and most consistent praise of all. This was the year in which her name became an international property. She was 31 and already a singer of considerable experience. Her operatic debut dated back to 1938 with the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where for long she was confined to small or soubrette parts which, she was advised, would continue to be her lot unless she signed up to the party membership requirements that were statutory under the Nazis. The decision was a hard one, but her father, though antipathetic to the regime, advised her to accept. Her career advanced, but was disrupted by a severe bout of tuberculosis. After her recovery, she was engaged by Karl Böhm for the Vienna Opera, making her debut there in 1944. Two years later, EMI’s talent scout and leading producer, Walter Legge, heard her as Rosina in The Barber of Seville: ‘a brilliant, fresh voice shot through with laughter, not large but admirably projected, with enchanting high notes’. She began recording with him almost immediately, at the start of a period incomparable in the history of the gramophone for the breadth of repertoire and the quality of performance.

Throughout the 1950s and 60s (which was also the age of Callas and Tebaldi, Gedda and Corelli, Gobbi and Fischer-Dieskau) Schwarzkopf was at the centre of all this. It is sometimes alleged that she had an unfair advantage, being by then married to Legge and, by extension, to a major recording company. Such an argument might be tenable if her achievements as a leading opera and concert singer had not matched up. But they did. In Bayreuth, Salzburg, Milan, Paris, London and the USA she won the recognition of audiences and critics. And, as the years went by, she gained in serious attention from the critics and in devotion from the public. She looked after her voice, and it lasted. Her final appearance on stage was in 1971, when she sang the first act of Der Rosenkavalier in Brussels. And she continued in recital until 1979, the year of Legge’s death and of her own 64th birthday.

Her operatic repertoire was wider than is commonly remembered: in early years, for instance, she regularly sang the coloratura role of Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, and later at La Scala was heard as Elsa, Marguerite and Mélisande. But two composers were central, Mozart and Richard Strauss. The most enduring of her roles in Mozart were Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni. In Strauss she was most closely associated with the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, though in her own affections the Countess in Capriccio probably came to be the most fondly remembered. Happily there is much more on record, including some prized live recordings such as her radiant Eva in Die Meistersinger at Bayreuth in 1951. Still richer is the series of song recitals, in which Mozart, Schubert and Strauss shared pre-eminence with Hugo Wolf.

Schwarzkopf’s recitals became treasured events throughout the world. Often the programmes confined themselves to the great Lieder composers, and it was a particular triumph that she could fill the Royal Festival Hall in London to capacity for a recital devoted entirely to the songs of Wolf.

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