I swear this was released days after Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's death and I still remember my surprise when I saw it in a window of Amsterdam's CD shop, thinking " wow, that was fast!" - obviously the music industry was well prepared for the fact that elderly lady was 90 and won't live much longer, therefore compilations were planned well in advance.
Schwazkopf was a legend of post WW2 era and one of the classiest ladies around, true noble beauty with magnificent silvery voice. There was also a strong, almost steel-like backbone to her, as many of her colleagues and pupils would admit. Which I perfectly understand, since the older I get myself, less patience I have with people who do things half-assedly. There are tons of recordings where she was either part of opera ensemble or recorded solo, so this 5 CD Box cleverly tries to divide them in various aspects of her art:
CD 1 is about composer Hugo Wolf - recorded with Gerald Moore and Geoffrey Parsons - its completely eccentric art music that she loved and championed trough her career. It sounded very strange to me at first but I grew to like it with time and I probably couldn't get better introduction to this composer.
CD 2 is again piano-and-voice collection, same pianists. But this one is about works of Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, and Richard Strauss so this is completely different era and Schwarzkopf is matchless as actress here, specially in "Erikonig" and wonderful "Die Forelle". Listen for yourself and marvel what can be achieved with only piano and voice. On the other hand, "Weigenlied" is pure dream. It really does make a difference when German-speaking artist sings this material.
CD 3 collects various opera arias recorded in places like Vienna, Salzburg and La Scala with list of conductors that sounds unbelievably now - Herbert von Karajan, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Otto Ackermann, Victor de Sabata and Tullio Serafin. I mean, listen and bow. No, not like this, lower!
CD 4 is titled "Encores and Folk Songs" - again its a piano-and-voice collection (with one exception, crowd pleaser "Frühlingsstimmen-Waltz" with Wiener Philharmoniker orcestra, that her teacher Maria Ivogün sang and recorded back in 1924). It is very pretty but it also shows how approach towards some of these composers have changed with time. Another Ivogün connections are two simple Swiss Folk Songs included here.I was always terrified of Wagner but just now I realized that Schwarzkopf does one of his Wesendonck Lieder songs here and I liked it.
CD 5 is by far the most interesting for everybody who loved Schwazkopf because it compiles previously unreleased recordings that she found less satisfying: since lady was famously picky and critical towards herself, this means these are still far above most of other artists recordings. Here you will find all sorts of goodies ("Four Last Songs" live with Karajan) and most fascinating of all, rehearsals for "Mass in B Minor" where she sings together with Kathleen Ferrier. I mean, these recordings of "Christe Eleison", "Laudamus Te" and "Et In Umum Dominum" are reason enough to purchase the whole box set. Just wonderful.
However, this is still relatively limited overview of great lady's discography because I have some other complete LP albums that were not even mentioned here (operetta, christmas music and such) so I guess its quite impossible to squeeze her whole life and career in a small box. The good thing is that this gives you the idea what Schwarzkopf was about and why was she so loved.
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