# Round Three: Frühling. Norman, Schwarzkopf



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

R. Strauss: Vier letzte Lieder, TrV 296 - 1. Frühling · Jessye Norman · Gewandhausorchester · Kurt Masur




Soprano Vocals: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Engineer: Ernst Rothe Conductor: George Szell Orchestra: Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Schwarzkopf recorded this many times. I hope this version is ok with everyone. 
Both got tremendous critical acclaim for their versions. I owned ES version as a teen and played it to death ( fitting). I love Jessye Norman and I don't think she was ever better than in this song and I have played it hundreds of times. It was the first thing I heard by her and I couldn't get used to her version after ES's. I had a serious opera buff mentor who converted me to a died in the wool Norman fan a decade later and the rest is history for me. Hope you enjoy both. Many will prefer a more lyric voice in the part though Strauss chose Flagstad for the premier ( who was a bit past her prime for this soaring piece and she had to skip the high B).


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Jessye Norman’s is my favorite recording of *Vier Letzte Lieder *though I can understand others have different preferences. The vocal amplitude suits the rich orchestration perfectly in my view.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Norman was at her best in this recording, and it takes a Schwarzkopf to find just enough more light and shade in the music to edge Norman's out of first place among my preferred versions. I love the way Schwarzkopf holds back in the softer moments, creating a sense of intimacy while allowing the climaxes of phrases to soar and shine. This song doesn't require much in the way of interpretation, but Schwarzkopf, as so often, finds ways to make the music more interesting than we knew it could be.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Many will prefer a more lyric voice in the part though Strauss chose Flagstad for the premier ( who was a bit past her prime for this soaring piece and she had to skip the high B).


I've read that Strauss chose Flagstad on someone's recommendation but had never heard her sing. She wasn't a good choice, especially by 1949, when she could still hammer out high As and Bs in Wagnerian outbursts but couldn't easily sustain Strauss's typical legato lines in high soprano territory.


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

Woodduck said:


> I've read that Strauss chose Flagstad on someone's recommendation but had never heard her sing. She wasn't a good choice, especially by 1949, when she could still hammer out high As and Bs in Wagnerian outbursts but couldn't easily sustain Strauss's typical legato lines in high soprano territory.


I've seen a xerox of the letter Strauss wrote to Flagstad asking her to sing it. He says he's asking for her in particular because he wanted "a singer of larger format" (eine Sängeriin grösseren Formats") and thought at once of her.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

I gave my vote to Jessie Norman, but I was really oscilating between the two options. And the results show me, they are even (so far). It is nice to have the song with both of them.
Jessie Norman is a little mezzo-ish, which is a better fit in my opinion, so she was my choice. But also Schwarzkopf, that effect in the beginning, how she started with a somewhat thin voice, and it suddenly switched to very rich sound - it gave me a sudden pulse of joy.
This is a great round.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

For a long time I wasn't a fan of Norman's version, but I gave it a reappraisal a few years ago and actually really liked it. It's now one of my top five. She is in gorgeous voice and sings with feeling, though, as I often note with her, the emotion is somewhat generalised.

Schwarzkopf is much more specific and does a lot more with the music. Admittedly, this is the version by which I got to know the songs and her voice and interpretation are somewhat embedded in my subconscious. I love the _Vier letzte Lieder _and have enjoyed a variety of singers doing them, but it is Schwarzkopf/Szell I always return to. It would be one of my desert island discs.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> For a long time I wasn't a fan of Norman's version, but I gave it a reappraisal a few years ago and actually really liked it. It's now one of my top five. She is in gorgeous voice and sings with feeling, though, as I often note with her, the emotion is somewhat generalised.
> 
> Schwarzkopf is much more specific and does a lot more with the music. Admittedly, this is the version by which I got to know the songs and her voice and interpretation are somewhat embedded in my subconscious. I love the _Vier letzte Lieder _and have enjoyed a variety of singers doing them, but it is Schwarzkopf/Szell I always return to. It would be one of my desert island discs.


It makes sense that you favor her as she has German attention to detail. Glad you enjoyed Norman doing it too. They are very different but both world class in my opinion. Do you know why Callas never learned any German repertoire. She would do a very different version of this if she had ever done it.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> It makes sense that you favor her as she has German attention to detail. Glad you enjoyed Norman doing it too. They are very different but both world class in my opinion. Do you know why Callas never learned any German repertoire. She would do a very different version of this if she had ever done it.


In the *Master Class *play, _that_ “Callas” says: I don’t like most things German, but I do like “Mut,” a word that means courage or heart or spirit. But I guess that, living under Nazi occupation in Athens, must’ve been the reason she couldn’t abide the language.


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

"The most international moment, far from negligible for his technical and dramatic preparation, was decidedly Beethoven's Fidelio, studied with Irma Kolassi, of whom Maria had already sung the main aria, the long and famous "Abscheulicher", in at least two concerts of the previous year.

The Arena of Herodes Atticus, like the other major bodies in Athens, were currently in the hands of the Nazi occupier. Maria, graduated in Italian, Spanish and French, did not know German, and studied it specifically with Greek teachers, carefully avoiding contact with the occupying Germans. 

Thanks to his reading, the twelve summer performances of Beethoven's drama of freedom acquired, in an atmosphere of spasmodic tension, in the beautiful open-air theater, an enormous allusive value to the conditions of the then Greece, while not sparing them from the accusations of collaborationism for having sung under a German direction."









Maria Callas







www.histouring.com


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Shaughnessy said:


> "The most international moment, far from negligible for his technical and dramatic preparation, was decidedly Beethoven's Fidelio, studied with Irma Kolassi, of whom Maria had already sung the main aria, the long and famous "Abscheulicher", in at least two concerts of the previous year.
> 
> The Arena of Herodes Atticus, like the other major bodies in Athens, were currently in the hands of the Nazi occupier. Maria, graduated in Italian, Spanish and French, did not know German, and studied it specifically with Greek teachers, carefully avoiding contact with the occupying Germans.
> 
> ...


El stupido me, I never knew the Nazis got all the way into Greece!!! That really is scary.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> I've read that Strauss chose Flagstad on someone's recommendation but had never heard her sing. She wasn't a good choice, especially by 1949, when she could still hammer out high As and Bs in Wagnerian outbursts but couldn't easily sustain Strauss's typical legato lines in high soprano territory.


I love her in almost everything I've heard her in but just the first song was enough for me to take a pass on her version of the 4LS's.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I love her in almost everything I've heard her in but just the first song was enough for me to take a pass on her version of the 4LS's.


When she sang these in subsequent carts, she eschewed _Frühling._


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## ALT (Mar 1, 2021)

MAS said:


> When she sang these in subsequent carts, she eschewed _Frühling._


Yeah well Flagstad screwed up _Frühling_ big time at the world premiere with Furtwängler. Here is the recording.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Elisabeth for me. Jessye is wonderfully effulgent but Elisabeth has more light and shade and also it was my imprint version. I wouldn’t be without either of them and every time I hear this song I can feel the tears welling up. These days I can hardly listen to these songs at one sitting!

I also have it on my list of things to be played at my funeral!😇


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

ALT said:


> Yeah well Flagstad screwed up _Frühling_ big time at the world premiere with Furtwängler. Here is the recording.


I think the fault might actually lie with this dreadful recording. There is tape slippage all over the shop but I agree that in places Flagstad is pretty grim.


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## ALT (Mar 1, 2021)

Barbebleu said:


> I think the fault might actually lie with this dreadful recording. There is tape slippage all over the shop but I agree that in places Flagstad is pretty grim.


Sorry, the Frühling mishap rests squarely on the soprano.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> El stupido me, I never knew the Nazis got all the way into Greece!!! That really is scary.


My mother is Greek and lived through the Nazi occupation. I remember that one year, when I was 16, my elder brother and I drove to Greece in an Old VW Beetle. When we went to some of the villages off the beaten track, the locals would look at us suspiciously until they ascertained we were English. The war migt have been over for more than 20 years, but they had long memories.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Barbebleu said:


> Elisabeth for me. Jessye is wonderfully effulgent but Elisabeth has more light and shade and also it was my imprint version. I wouldn’t be without either of them and every time I hear this song I can feel the tears welling up. These days I can hardly listen to these songs at one sitting!
> 
> I also have it on my list of things to be played at my funeral!😇


Don't forget to vote. The two ladies are level pegging at the moment.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Don't forget to vote. The two ladies are level pegging at the moment.


I already voted for Elisabeth. 👍


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Schwarzkopf of the delicious and lovely sounding voice simply did not grab me the way the depth of Norman's voice did.
I guess I bend the line?


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Barbebleu said:


> I already voted for Elisabeth. 👍


There are six votes for Elisabeth - and your name isn't there.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> There are six votes for Elisabeth - and your name isn't there.


Seems like you’re campaigning…


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## ALT (Mar 1, 2021)

MAS said:


> Seems like you’re campaigning…


That’s the impression I got, too.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Yo Tsaras-you're on OUR TEAM!!


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

nina foresti said:


> Yo Tsaras-you're on OUR TEAM!!





nina foresti said:


> Yo Tsaras-you're on OUR TEAM!!





nina foresti said:


> Yo Tsaras-you're on OUR TEAM!!


Hey somebody get rid of this mess. I goofed.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

nina foresti said:


> Hey somebody get rid of this mess. I goofed.


Cheerleading is always repetitive. Can you twirl a baton?


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> There are six votes for Elisabeth - and your name isn't there.


You are correct. Now remedied.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

We have two different, but decent renditions, I'm happy they both exist. I prefer opulent Norman's performance to subtle Schwarzkopf's one. But it's not a evaluation but a subconscious preference.


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## damianjb1 (Jan 1, 2016)

This is the easiest one yet for me. Norman Norman Norman.


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## damianjb1 (Jan 1, 2016)

MAS said:


> Jessye Norman’s is my favorite recording of *Vier Letzte Lieder *though I can understand others have different preferences. The vocal amplitude suits the rich orchestration perfectly in my view.


Mine too. This CD has given me so much pleasure over the years.


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

Just kind of a heads up for those visitors to the forum who may not be the sharpest knives in the drawer...

This "Norman Schwartzkopf" thread is a contest between Jessye Norman and Elisabeth Schwartzkopf in a lieder written by Richard Strauss entitled "Frühling"

It has absolutely nothing to do with the American army general "Norman Schwartzkopf" who led the coalition forces during the Gulf War in 1990.

He never recorded "Frühling" but If his videotaped karaoke performance of "You'll Never Walk Alone" from the hit Broadway musical "Carousel" is anything to go by, he would have finished a distant fourth... with "Anyone not named "Norman Schwartzkopf" solidly in third place.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

damianjb1 said:


> Mine too. This CD has given me so much pleasure over the years.


Just as the Schwarzkopf CD (originally LP) has done for me. It is without question one of my desert island discs. I like the Norman now a lot more than I did when it first came out, but nothing will ever supplant the Schwarzkopf/Szell for me.


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## damianjb1 (Jan 1, 2016)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Just as the Schwarzkopf CD (originally LP) has done for me. It is without question one of my desert island discs. I like the Norman now a lot more than I did when it first came out, but nothing will ever supplant the Schwarzkopf/Szell for me.


I'm not much of a Schwarzkopf fan. I have her recording with Szell but I think I've only listened to it a few times. My favourite version with a lighter voice is Lucia Popp.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

damianjb1 said:


> My favourite version with a lighter voice is Lucia Popp.


I will look her up, thanx.

I was also content with Julia Varady, which youtube offered to me - here.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

damianjb1 said:


> I'm not much of a Schwarzkopf fan. I have her recording with Szell but I think I've only listened to it a few times. My favourite version with a lighter voice is Lucia Popp.


Popp, whom I heard sing it live with Tennstedt, is in my top five. Still, Schwarzkfopf remains my absolute favourite, the soprano who makes me think as much about the meaning of the poetry as the beauty of the music.


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## damianjb1 (Jan 1, 2016)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Popp, whom I heard sing it live with Tennstedt, is in my top five. Still, Schwarzkfopf remains my absolute favourite, the soprano who makes me think as much about the meaning of the poetry as the beauty of the music.


Was Schwarzkopf your first? Jessye was my first in these songs. I wonder if your first recordings a great one it will remain your favourite for ever???


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

damianjb1 said:


> Was Schwarzkopf your first? Jessye was my first in these songs. I wonder if your first recordings a great one it will remain your favourite for ever???


Yes it was, and I'm sure you're right.

Throughout the years that I worked in one of London's major classical record stores, the Schwarzkopf was a best seller and was one of those records, like Jacqueline Du Pré's Elgar Cello Concerto, that we had on permanent weekly order. The Norman was released around twenty years later and also became a best seller. I'm sure it meant the same to a slightly younger generation. I've grown to like it a lot and it has become one of my favourite versions, but I find it hard to separate the music from the sound of Schwarzkopf's voice singing it, not to mention the specificity of her response to the poetry. I can hear her individual inflections in my mind's ear just when I'm singing the music in my head.


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## ALT (Mar 1, 2021)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Yes it was, and I'm sure you're right.
> 
> Throughout the years that I worked in one of London's major classical record stores, the Schwarzkopf was a best seller and was one of those records, like Jacqueline Du Pré's Elgar Cello Concerto, that we had on permanent weekly order. The Norman was released around twenty years later and also became a best seller. I'm sure it meant the same to a slightly younger generation. I've grown to like it a lot and it has become one of my favourite versions, but I find it hard to separate the music from the sound of Schwarzkopf's voice singing it, not to mention the specificity of her response to the poertry. I can hear her individual inflections in my mind's ear just when I'm singing the music in my head.


Nto to mention that EMI (now Warner) won’t let us forget for a moment that their two commercial products with ES are neither first nor last word on these songs.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

ALT said:


> Nto to mention that EMI (now Warner) won’t let us forget for a moment that their two commercial products with ES are neither first nor last word on these songs.


When has EMI actually said that their two commercial products with ES are the first and last word on these songs?

They simply know a classic when they hear it. So do I.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Yes it was, and I'm sure you're right.
> 
> Throughout the years that I worked in one of London's major classical record stores, the Schwarzkopf was a best seller and was one of those records, like Jacqueline Du Pré's Elgar Cello Concerto, that we had on permanent weekly order. The Norman was released around twenty years later and also became a best seller. I'm sure it meant the same to a slightly younger generation. I've grown to like it a lot and it has become one of my favourite versions, but I find it hard to separate the music from the sound of Schwarzkopf's voice singing it, not to mention the specificity of her response to the poetry. I can hear her individual inflections in my mind's ear just when I'm singing the music in my head.


I hardly understand what does mean to separate the music from the voice. But I apparently understand the preference of Schwarzkopf to Norman. Though the latter shows excellent Deutsch (she pronounced it well and spoke fluently), the former has an advantage of a native speaker. It means not only free language treatment but also easy, unconscious reading and reproduction of hidden culture codes.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

ColdGenius said:


> I hardly understand what does mean to separate the music from the voice. But I apparently understand the preference of Schwarzkopf to Norman. Though the latter shows excellent Deutsch (she pronounced it well and spoke fluently), the former has an advantage of a native speaker. It means not only free language treatment but also easy, unconscious reading and reproduction of hidden culture codes.


Someone said (possibly Carlo Maria Giulini) of Callas that he couldn’t think of her as a voice, but what she expressed with it. Similarly, I can’t think of anything she sang or recorded, in another singer’s voice. The music of *Norma*, for instance, is in my memory, in her voice, and also of *Medea *by Cherubini. Impossible to think of anyone else in that music.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

ColdGenius said:


> I hardly understand what does mean to separate the music from the voice. But I apparently understand the preference of Schwarzkopf to Norman. Though the latter shows excellent Deutsch (she pronounced it well and spoke fluently), the former has an advantage of a native speaker. It means not only free language treatment but also easy, unconscious reading and reproduction of hidden culture codes.


What I mean is that the sound of a particular singer's voice in certain music is so embedded in my psyche that I find it hard to enjoy anyone else in the same music. With Callas, it is both Norma and Medea, and I'd probably add Violetta, though not funnily enough, Tosca. She is a superb Tosca, maybe the greatest on disc, but I can still enjoy other singers in that role.

I have come to enjoy other singers singing the _Vier letzte Lieder_, not least Jessye Norman, so it's not quite the same, but, whomever I am listening to, there is still the ghost of Schwarzkopf's way with the music resounding in my mind's ear.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

ewilkros said:


> I've seen a xerox of the letter Strauss wrote to Flagstad asking her to sing it. He says he's asking for her in particular because he wanted "a singer of larger format" (eine Sängeriin grösseren Formats") and thought at once of her.


But was he referring to the size of her voice, or her reputation.?


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

Tsaraslondon said:


> But was he referring to the size of her voice, or her reputation.?


I think the only choice is between the size of her voice and the size of her postwar waistline. "Format" is pretty specific.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

ewilkros said:


> I think the only choice is between the size of her voice and the size of her postwar waistline. "Format" is pretty specific.


Do you think Strauss would’ve insulted her while trying to get her to sing his newest creation? 
Is the word “format” in German used exclusively to denote physical characteristics?


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

MAS said:


> Do you think Strauss would’ve insulted her while trying to get her to sing his newest creation?
> Is the word “format” in German used exclusively to denote physical characteristics?


No, but that's the only possible _mis-reading,_ which was my point. "Reputation" doesn't come into it.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

ewilkros said:


> No, but that's the only possible _mis-reading,_ which was my point. "Reputation" doesn't come into it.


Format translates as stature. Does stature not have the same dual meaning it has in English?


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Format translates as stature. Does stature not have the same dual meaning it has in English?


Pulling out my Duden vol 5 (Fremdwörterbuch = [German] words borrowed from other languages), I find you are correct in taking "stature" as a possible and probable translation of Strauss' German: etymoligical meaning "Geformtes, Genormtes" (formed, subjected to norms), primary meaning having mostly to do with print layout, secondary having to do with fonts, tertiary meaning "stark ausgeprägtes Persönlichkeitsbild; überdurchschnittliches Niveau; hervorragende Tüchtigkeit" (strongly marked personality; above-average level; outstanding ability). I can't find any of the last as a meaning for the English word format; all my dictionaries, including the very thick one, throw me back onto the world of printing.

I would appear to have been the victim of a "false cognate".

I have found the Xerox of the Strauss letter, and will copy it out later. It's long-ish.


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

ewilkros said:


> I have found the Xerox of the Strauss letter, and will copy it out later. It's long-ish.


[translation follows] 

Garmisch, den 13. Mai 1949
{[handwritten:] Zoeppritzstrasse 42}

Verehrteste Frau!

Seit Jahren fern von Oper und Konzert, am schönen Genfersee seit Monaten erkrankt, hatte ich leider niemals die Freude Sie zu bewundern, musste mir auch versagen Ihren Liederabend in der Zürcher Tonhalle beizuwohnen, doch berichtete mir mein Biograph Dr. Willi Schuh, der Musikreferent der Neuen Züricher Zeitung, von Ihrem wundervollen Liederabend und ganz begeistert besonders von Ihrem ergreifenden Vortrag des Dehmel'schen Liedes. Dies bringt mich auf den Gedanken, gerade Ihnen eine Anzahl meiner Lieder mit Orchester zu empfehlen, deren Votrag den normalen Konzertsängerinnen verschlossen und, wie sehr viele meiner Lieder, Opernsängerinnen von grösserem Format und die auch im Konzertsaal heimisch sind verlangen. Da gerade diese Lieder bei verschiedensten Verlegern zerstreut sind, habe ich eine gedruckte Aufstellung derselben anfertigen lassen, die ich mir erlaube hiermit zu übersenden, worauf ich die gerade Ihnen vielleicht am Meisten zusagenden blau angestrichen habe und meinen Verlager Boosey and Hawkes in London gebeten habe, Ihnen dieselben auf Ihren Wunsch und auch mit dem dazu gehörenden Orchestermaterial zur Verfügung zu stelllen. Als Manuskript habe ich ausserdem noch bei mir die besonders dankbaren Befreit, Frühlingsfeier und Zueignung, von denen ich, wenn Sie es wünschen, Kopien jederzeit zur Verfügung stelle. Vielleicht haben Sie die Güte mir kurz mitzuteilen, welche von den Liedern die heute noch ziemlich vergriffen sind, Sie schon besitzen, welche Sie zur Ansicht wünschen und bemerke zugleich, dass meine 4 letzten Lieder mit Orchester, die gegenwärtig in London im Druck befindlich sind, Ihnen ev[entuell] zur Uraufführung in einem Orchesterkonzert mit einer erstklassigen Dirigenten und Orchester ich mit Vergnügen zur Verfügen stelle, vorauf mich schon vor einem halben Jahr mein Verleger Mr. Hawkes: New York, welchen Sie glaube ich persönlich kennen, aufmerksam gemacht hat. 
Ich würde mich sehr freuen, wenn gerade Sie von diesen sehr schwierigen, aber wenn sie den richtigen Interpreten finden sehr dankbaren Gesängen unter denen sich gute da Caponummern wie Frühlingsfeier, Cäcilie, Winterliebe etc. befinden, in Ihre Programme aufnehmen würden.
Nähere Auskünfte wird Ihnen jederzeit mein Verleger Dr. Roth bei Boosey and Hawkes, London W1. 295 Regent Street, erteilen.
Mit verehrungsvollen Grüssen
Ihr sehr ergebener
{[handwritten:] Richard Strauss}

Garmisch, May 13, 1949
{[handwritten:] Zoeppritzstrasse 42}

Most-honored Lady!

Far removed from opera and concerts for years, ill for some months now on beautiful Lake Geneva, I unfortunately never had the pleasure of admiring you [in performance], and had to deny myself the pleasure of attending your recital in the Zurich Tonhalle, but my biographer Dr. Willi Schuh, the music consultant for the Neue Züricher Zeitung, told me of your wonderful recital and was particularly enthusiastic about your moving performance of the Dehmel song. This brings me to the idea of recommending to you in particular a number of my songs with orchestra, for the performance of which normal concert singers are unsuited and which, like very many of my songs, demand opera singers of larger format who are also at home in the concert hall. Since these songs are scattered among various publishers, I have had a printed list made of them, which I take the liberty of sending herewith, whereupon I have checked with blue pencil those that might perhaps seem most promising to you, and have asked my publisher Boosey and Hawkes in London to make them and their appropriate orchestral materials available to you at your request. I also have with me [recent orchestrations of?] the particularly grateful Befreit, Frühlingsfeier and Zueignung in manuscript, copies of which I can make available at any time if you wish. Perhaps you would be so kind as to let me know, briefly, which of the songs that are out of print today you already own, and which you might like to see. At the same time I remark that my last 4 songs with orchestra, which are currently being set in print in London, I am happy to make available to you for a world premiere in [conjunction with an upcoming] orchestral concert with a first-class conductor and orchestra, to which my publisher Mr. Hawkes: New York, whom I think you know personally, drew my attention six months ago.
I would be very happy if you, in particular, would include in your programs some of these very difficult (but if they find the right interpreter very rewarding) songs, including good encore numbers such as Frühlingsfeier, Cäcilie, Winterliebe, etc.
My publisher Dr. Roth at Boosey and Hawkes, London W1. 295 Regent Street, can supply you with further details at any time.
With respectful regards
Your very devoted
{[handwritten:] Richard Strauss}


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

^^^ It sounds as if Strauss had never heard Flagstad sing. Why is "in performance" bracketed? Are the words an editor's insertion? Do we know whether he had heard her recordings?


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

Woodduck said:


> ^^^ It sounds as if Strauss had never heard Flagstad sing. Why is "in performance" bracketed? Are the words an editor's insertion? Do we know whether he had heard her recordings?


The transcription, translation and brackets are mine. The letter looks typed off in haste with missing punctuation, a repeated article or two, and sentence structure that gets kind of run-on and tangled. I thought "I never had the pleasure of admiring you" awkward and weird outside the circumstances of him being long-term housebound and so I supplied the implied "in person". Hard to think he had avoided her on the radio and on records, though I have no idea whether he had, as some of his contemporaries did, an aversion to "canned music". Wonder if the Zurich concert was broadcast?


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

ewilkros said:


> ... my biographer Dr. Willi Schuh, the music consultant for the Neue Züricher Zeitung, told me of your wonderful recital and was particularly enthusiastic about your moving performance of the Dehmel song...


For extra credit: Dr. Schuh and his wife were the dedicatees of "Frühling". So, see: not off topic at all. Much.


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