Newspaper Article

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf

Wilson, Conrad

2006

Overview

[Elisabeth Schwarzkopf] could work such magic on song after song, capturing the uneasy nocturnal tranquillity of Mozart's Abendempfindung, the whimsicalities of Schumann, the pithiness of Hugo Wolf, the severe beauty of Bach. But it was [Schubert], above all, whose music inspired her and with which she wholly identified. An old Columbia shellac disc, coupling Die Forelle with Seligkeit, released soon after the Second World War, provided perhaps the first clue, at least in Britain, to the singer she was in the process of becoming. Though I bought it, as a schoolboy enthusiast, purely for The Trout, it was the radiant portrayal of happiness in the three verses of the backup song that captivated me. Intoxicated by its beauty, I played it again and again, vowing to marry her when I was older, though it was Walter Legge, EMI's formidable record producer, who was to win her. Although more recent singers, particularly Brigitte Fassbaender, have found a vein of uncertainty beneath the shining surface of Seligkeit, Schwarzkopf found only bliss and serenity, thereby waltzing her way into my adolescent heart and those, no doubt, of countless other young listeners.

• Publisher: Gannett Media Corp
• Subject: Schwarzkopf, Elisabeth