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"Queen of Lieder" an advertisement hailed Elizabeth Schwarzkopf in yesterday afternoon's program-book for the soprano's Symphony Hall recital, and for once an advertisement understated. She was not only the Queen of Lieder, but the queen of everything on the long program. One has never heard more consistent singing throughout a variety of style that demanded everything from light winsome gayety to full dramatic intensity. Miss Schwarzkopf is a superb singer and a great interpreter. Her musical instinct and artistic insight are guided by a keen intelligence which finds, preserves, and transmits the essence of every song and aria.
"Her timbre, style, and delivery change with every
composition. In the opening group of Bach, Gluck, Pergolesi and Mozart,
the special quality of each composer was made plain in microcosm of a few
fleeting measures. The succeeding Schubert lieder gave us the quintessence
of the composer with only four examples. Mozart's grace steel-spring
resilience were clearly shown in arias sung with that mingling of charm
and strength without which the composer can become over-dainty or
over-precise.
"There was a change from the printed list in the third
group when to mark Sibelius's 90th birthday the recitalist presented four
songs by the Finnish com poser. Was it the magic of Miss Schwarzkopf's
renditions that made these seem masterpieces of form and substance
Possibly so since one previously never had thought of ranging this
composer's works for voice alongside his symphonies.
"Arias by Puccini and light but no less artistically
done encores closed an afternoon of great music-making rendered all the
more effective by the pianistic support of Paul Ulanowsky who was a full
and equal partner.
"Miss Schwarzkopf herself could scarcely restrain her
enthusiasm for the inspired playing of her accompanist. She forced him to
share the applause after every song and after every group. At one point
she turned to the audience with an expression of nothing less than awe and
shaking her head in almost disbelieving admiration played a piano with her
fingers in the air as if to say that never had she received accompaniment
of this order; that it was impossible; that such sympathy, tact,
brilliance and skill could not possibly exist. "All that the soprano tried to indicate about Mr. Ulanowsky the audience felt and showed about Miss Schwarzkopf. The weather outside was atrocious, but inside it was a fairyland of magic, warmth, light, and song with the audience completely en rapport with the two artists on stage. This was a concert one will never forget.
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