Elisabeth Schwarzkopf sings "An die Musik" by Schubert

[joanabanyeres]

peculiar voice, personal..

 May be a better legato......

[ArthurKaletzky]

Lovely singing and decent accompaniment, but Gerald Moore's spoken intro would be far better transcribed as surtitles or a text rostrum shot: his pronunciation of the German title is appalling - all the more so since much of his life and work was spent partnered to German speakers.

[KarolTeganjx570]

na wohne in leipzig

[saagua1953]

I heard her in a recital in Cambridge (UK) in 1951 and she was very well received. No hard feelings at all.

[Psammead806]

This is so beautiful...I sang it when I was 12 and reallllllyyyy should get it out again for my recital this year....thankyou, so inspiring

[agedfan]

She just performs herself, not the song! It lacks any empathy...

[Entropy56]

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf vs Janet Baker. Who is better?

[Gloriabal]

@Entropy56 Janet Baker - more feeling!!

[ian1856]

@Entropy56 Janet Baker!  You had to ask? : )

[leporello56]

i think schubert was actually in love with music. like me :)

[tatsubear]

wunderschön! Sie ist eine der höchsten Sängern für mich.

[ArielchanTempest]

That dress is GORGEOUS! Wish I could see this in color!

[TheMrBritbrit]

what happened to the real divas :(

[ekonvollm]

Wunderbare Elisabeth Schwarzkopf! Sie war eine einmalige Sängerin. Reizvoll ist auch der Vergleich mit Elisabeth Grümmer, die diese Lieder auf total andere Weise sang und ebenfalls unerreicht ist.

[ChuckyJesus666]

Words fail....that's why we need music....

[DQ32]

P.S. I'm a baritone. :)

[DQ32]

Perfect! I'm singing this and one other song for my audition. It's nice to sing like her for a recital, but for an audition, it's best not to be legato like her.

[noratranvouez]

la plus video musciale. The most beautiful musical video. Thank you gerald for intro.

[ScorpionGrasshopper]

Brava! A legend and an inspiration!

[8kmaq8]

you da womyn



[goldenthroat86]

A small, but ugly voice.

[NotAgain90]

@goldenthroat86 sure YOU can sing this better than Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, right?. or can you? why not post a recording - the folks here would be only too eager to tell you what they think about your golden throat..

[goldenthroat86]

@NotAgain90 Do you also ask a movie critic who gave a popular movie a poor review if he can make a better movie than the director? Do you also ask an art critic who gave a popular painter a poor review of his work if he could execute a better painting than the painter? Do you also ask a drama critic who gave a poor review to a popular play if he can write a better play? No, you don't. Get the point?

[MusicVocalism]

@goldenthroat86 But you aren't a trusted critic, a movie critic usually spends years learning and studying film or has done work in the line of film making or producing YOU on the other have no such experience so please excuse my french but I have to say it SHUT THE FUCK UP! ;D P.S. If you have had experience I would like you desrcibe in vocal pedagogical terms to prove how on the earth Prima Donna Schwarzkopf could have a "small ugly voice"... hummm prove it!

[John27346]

@NotAgain90 Goldie Throat would be a good name for a pornstar.

[chickenman136]

i think it sounds better sung by a tenor

[TheLastTocharian]

No hay porqué lamentarse, la más grandiosa oportunidad de todos los tiempos está en nuestras manos, justo en estos años tan áridos y desoladores es cuando aquello es buscado, es deseado con más fuerza. Ya varios hombres y mujeres notables de la música popular lo intuyen con el corazón y no pasará mucho para cuando veamos que el Sol regresa a la mañana del mundo; esto ya ha pasado antes, no hay porqué desesperar.

[onof80]

My favourite Schubert's lied performed by my favourite soprano! thank you!

[meredith21846]

Schwarzkopf and Gerald Moore, what better duo to perform this timeless gem.

[mrkabbazi]

so cold face

[elainebmack]

Not all great artists are seen as "politically correct", a very modern and facile concept for those who never had to live through a war on their own soil, or make hard decisions during hard times. Americans fit that description. Artists like Elizabeth Schwartzkopf, Furtwangler, and von Karajan were faced with accusations of Nazi sympathizing and allegiance, but they were still great artists, and should be given the respect that all great artists deserve. Passing judgement is all too easy.

[Canbelto1]

@Napoloentas - I just don't like her singing or her artistry, if you can call it that. As for my being American, I don't see what that has to do with anything, and if we are going to make ad hominem statements, your English needs remediation.

[violetavalery]

I can't understand how some people cannot appreciate the type of smooth, dark, velvety sound Ms Schwarzkopf had. She has a very beatiful voice and in this video proves to be a great artist. Only a deaf or a mediocre person would say that she made a career because she was married to some influential guy.

[AlexaKrisi]

We're singing this song in chorus, I love it!

[mauriciostarosta]

Thanks for posting! Very inspired song and performance.

[Canbelto1]

Oh, the manipulations that this woman needs to make in order to produce a tone. So much tension. You can see it when she drops he chin to force the air up. She was married to Walter Legge, and he created her. As far as her sympathies during the war, that story is well known. It amazes me that she is regarded as a great artist.

[Napoleontas]

@Canbelto1 Let me guess , you dont like the fact that she is a great artist because you dont agree as most mass brainwashed humans do with the fact that she didnt betray her country during ww2 and turned against it, So as a good inferior you come to criticize her steadfastness through trying to hopelessly criticize her talent. A Typical and very MUCH AMERICAN behavior .

[rhythmaxo56]

@Canbelto1 Every comment you've written on a video has to do with picking out faults in singers - how about you post a video of you singing and show us all has its really done?

[rhythmaxo56]

@Canbelto1 Every comment you've written on a video has to do with picking out faults in singers - how about you post a video of you singing and show us all has its really done?

[phoenix4165]

@Canbelto1 No, he didn't. Did you ever hear this lady live? I don't think so or you would not have made these remarks.

[rsburton51]

@phoenix4165

This is lovely, but my favorites are Dame Janet Baker and George London.

[abracadabranque]

Ouhouhouh....Ou le retour de la chouette hulotte post-pubère!..

[blauauge2]

teilweise komplett unverständliche aussprache. klingt schrecklich unnatürlich. thema verfehlt !

[NazTb0y]

@blauauge2 wen empfiehlst du dann?

[dick0447]

To those of you calling Schwarzkopf a Nazi, wait until you have to live under a totalitarian regime. See what decisions and compromises YOU would have to make in order to survive, and then come back and make your comments.

[robertrstevens]

@dick0447 Ich bin mit Ihnen völlig einverstanden ! Wie viele Amerikaner haben irgendwas gegen die Kreiegshetze des Presidenten George W. Bush getan ! Mehr als 42 Attentaten wurden auf Hitler verübt ! Wo waren die Amerikaner ?

[wolgable]

@dick0447 Somehow people like Marlene Dietrich had enough courage to say no.

[dick0447]

By 1930 Dietrich was working in the US for Paramount before Hitler came to power. She was a US citizen in 1937, so she was well able to say no - she had somewhere to go.

[SebastianBach99]

Beautiful performance - the accompanist/introducer was the wonderful Gerald Moore - such a great partner for so many voices. I don't know how singer and pianist decide on tempo between them, but with Moore, it always comes out right! I heard Fritz Wunderlich's rendition just now and thought it was a little too fast.

[wefond]

This is to me a Nazi singer. Staunch and rigid. Beautiful maybe. Maybe horrible.

[CalypsOo0]

@wefond I agree that this version is too rigid, without emotion.... It is an ode to art, it supposed to be expressive, and emotionnal.

I DO PREFER the version pf Felicity Lott really emotionnal.

(But what the link with the Nazis ?)

[Desideria7]

@wefond: Are you mentally sic or just an idiot?!! Have you ever heard about the Pure Music?! THIS IS THE QUINTESSENCE OF THE MUSIC!!! Of course, the cretins like you want to see the movements of the 180 grads with hands, feet and head to understand what is going on in the song, right? So go to the zoo to visit the monkeys and there you will get what you want! BUT DON'T TOUCH ONE OF THE GREATEST SINGERS IN THE WHOLE STORY, YOU BASTARD!!!

[100espada]

@wefond So singing German=Nazi?

That's incredibly stupid and racist.

[wefond]

@100espada Nein. I apologize for sounding as though I painted German singing with Nazis. It is specifically Ms. Schwarzkopf, who could be a vicious person to other singers, and to me on this recording displayed a kind of control of her voice that I associate with rigidity and military control. It's just my impression of this rendering. I know other recordings where her singing is sublime and not in the least controlling.

[NazTb0y]

@wefond Could you name some? I'm curious.

[NazTb0y]

@wefond if she's sacrificing the "purity of vowels" for the sake of tone, wouldn't that make her anti-nazi?

[amadeus20100]

beautiful voice beautiful music thank you so mutch

[hamishmichie]

rarely comes thou, spirit of delight. Scrumptious.

[SugarTomAppleRoger]

I met Frau Schwarzkopf in Zürich. I miss her so much.

[isanderful]

@SugarTomAppleRoger 

[noratranvouez]

begins on O:37.people who say that EliS is too sophisticated (see below), are perhaps not enough. thank you baritnoguapo.

[classicvinylbiz]

Stunning, absolutely terrific footage. This song was of course Moore's parting gift to the world. You might find a 1952 recording featuring Schwarzkopf and Edwin Fischer, of interest:

watch?v=gLAElaZh8-s

thanks, and again, thank you for this outstanding video, it really is priceless.

[operaandy]

Pronouncing a pure vowel high in the voice is bad for it, hence all vowels turn to uh in the rafters.

[minnie888444]

Wonderful. Danke!

[lovesGenet]

u white folks is are crazy.This superlative perfectionist sopranoGerman? Nazi(come on she didn't want to leave Germany and yo mommas and daddies were killing nigs not too long ago so watch it!Can not be compared toMoffo or orFerrel.Comparisons are for fools .Nothing is ever repeated in this world so comparison is impossible! now put a carrot in you r butts!

[BillSalem]

I think in the case of Schwarzkopf, it doesn't really make sense to critique her diction. She knows what she is doing when she sacrifices the purity of a vowel for the beauty of tone. And she did know how to make beautiful tones. Where I think she does cross the line is in her sloppy musicianship. She cuts short a bar here and there and leaves it to Gerald Moore to do his best to pick up the pieces.

Nevertheless this video is a treasure. Her phrasing and breath support are wonderful.

[viola989]

@BillSalem i think to that time it was quite common to leave out some bars or change sth, go and listen to the old violin records. it just changed during the decades.

i love this video!!

[leecohospital]

Too bad she was a Nazi.

[politicopol]

Once you listen to Kathleen Ferrier...most pales into insignificance...this is the source of the problem...here...

[MastersoftheOpera]

Why do I see so much criticism here ? Schwarzkopf was GERMAN! Of course she can sing with the best German diction. Her strongest repertoire was always German opera, operetta & Lieder. Her voice is beautiful. Even in her old age in the 1970's, she maintained a beautiful voice. She has excellent technique & one more thing - warmth, realism, passion and emotion that makes the words have more meaning.

[areiosgeorgos]

Maybe she could sing with the best German diction, but in this rendition, she simply doesn't! (German is my mother-tongue, so I should be able to judge - most vowels aren't correct pronounced, it really sounds as if she wasn't German herself.) You mostly can't understand what she is singing (even non-native speakers like Kathleen Ferrier and Victoria de los Angeles have a better and clearer pronounciation!).

[viola989]

@areiosgeorgos this doesnt bother me. i'm german, too, and i dont know a lot about singing, just a little about music. i love the clip!

[NazTb0y]

@MastersoftheOpera what do you mean, "with excellent German diction?" Diction means word-choice, so the poet is the only one that controls the diction. Do you mean pronunciation?

[disneylandman66]

@NazTb0y Diction also refers to style of speaking (accent, articulation, pronunciation.)

[bonnies1234567]

For the most inspirational and reverent interpretation, check Kathleen Ferrier. So unaffected--a true contralto.

[LaBohemienne8]

Ouch... I don't think she would be happy to know this is posted here for the whole world to watch. Horrible performance. Good thing to know she can do better.

[Razzia84]

beautiful. thnx for posting

[Zmusicbox]

She was one of those rare combinations of great physical beauty and extreme talent!

[paulostroff99]

a LOVELY VOICE AND SINGING!

[karronheitmann]

opera will always rule! will remain " classic"

[paulostroff99]

Singing of a very high order. Brava! TY James

[alecs1976]

@paulostroff99

totally not! terrible!

[cantarinamama]

@alecs1976 We should all sound so terrible!!!

[alecs1976]

@cantarinamama

I don't know how well you speak German...... I myself am a native German speaker and I can tell you, her diction in this song is very bad. some vowels are modified almost beyond recognition. if you watch one of her masterclasses you will see how picky she is with the students on diciton. she herself would have not gotten away with this performance in her own masterclass!

[marywardify]

@alecs1976 I agree, this performance is very mannered. Still, Schwarzkopf was one of the greats! She was also an excellent and very engaging teacher. In one of her (very valuable and entertaining) master classes on You Tube, she actually concedes that some things that were fashionable for singers to do in her day were not so great, like extreme vowel modification. Check it out.

[CanadaPisces]

Gerald moore + Elizabeth Schwarazkopf =

a superb combination of piano and voice!

TY baritonoguapo for downloading this video!

[TheHenrylaycock]

TRANSLATION

O fairest art, how oft in hours blighted,

When I am trapped in life's wild race,

Hast thou with love on me alighted,

And flown me to a better place!

From thy sweet harp a sigh so often drifted,

A chord so holy and of bliss,

Thou show'dst me heaven's light uplifted,

O fairest art, I thank thee so for this!

[sweetsoprano1211]

How I wish there were still programs like this on TV! I'm so saddened about the direction "popular' music is going. I want to live in a world where more people go the symphony, or a recital, for live entertainment. Active and intelligent audiences are dying. It honestly brings tears to my eyes!

[silverbud]

@sweetsoprano1211

I fear there were never those times. When? Cheap entertainment music was always stronger than "art".

[vonFalkenstein77]

@sweetsoprano1211

You´re absolutely right but the world you are referring to is gone by now. It´s really over. and now it´s just a different world and society which is not always easy to deal with. Let´s just be grateful for all these great recordings and they will last as long as we live..

[jd7x7jd]

@sweetsoprano1211 Hello. My impression is that we are living in a golden age of classical music. If you want to hear any major artist in London you'd better book early these days. :-)

[trainerstone]

@sweetsoprano1211 I have done all that I can to help the production of classical music wherever I am living (currently in provincial Philippines). The Philippines has so many beautiful singers (e.g. Lea Salonga, Charice) so I've been lucky here. Very few play classical instruments though. I fear my generation (X) will be the last that sends their children for piano or violin lessons.

[elainebmack]

@sweetsoprano1211 . I hear you loud and clear. I grew up listening to live music in our home. Both of my parents were musicians and educators, and I followed their footsteps. I used to love seeing an orchestra on tv, or hearing programs such as these.

[1962HILTON]

@sweetsoprano1211

I feel exactly the same. My favorite channel is "Arts". But sometimes I feel like I am alone in this crazy world.

[MissChristineDaae1]

@sweetsoprano1211 come to bellingham wa!

[MissChristineDaae1]

@sweetsoprano1211 Come to Bellingham, WA! It is a city that worships the arts!

[Gurdow]

Schwarzkopf kicks ass

[TheLeonapa]

hace dos glisando al principio fuera de lugar levanta mucho el pecho le falta apoyo , no se rie ni en joda, pero es rubia esta medio desnuda, BUENO HOY Aparecen , mucho mas desnudas en fin me parece un mamarracho , lamento si ofendo a alguien

[DarkAngelAzreil]

Well...the era of the opera singer refuses to die. I sing this song and it was fun seeing someone else sing this song. Now I have to erase her performance so it does not influence me but lovely voice all the same. Shame there are so few who do opera now a days.

[devastaticon]

smart move for your own performance, but don't erase it completely as there is much to be learned from her interpretation

[neelsdp1]

Simply beautiful!

[JanetteHeffernan]

They don't make TV programmes like this today! It really is of a past age. How confident we looked and so prim and proper and as if nothing would ever change! Such 'good taste'. Such restraint!

It almost makes one want to scream relax and enjoy!

I wonder what the wonderful G Moore would make of today! He would relax and we would enjoy!

[vibraharp226]

Hi Janette,

I was thinking exactly the same thing and then I scrolled down and saw your post! The only programming that comes close today would be on PBS, but that often devolves into overdone, big-budget productions (and only during pledge drives) like 3 Tenors, Celtic Woman or gimmicky performers like Andre Bocelli. And yes, Gerald Moore was great: distinguished, restrained, yet wanting to communicate his love of his craft. Subtlety is dead, available only in old film. So sad.

[hugothebear]

Dear Janette, to an extent I might agree with you - but as I grow older I feel we are losing touch with the charm and intimacy of music such as this - maybe the clothes could tone down a bit but the "formailty" allows us to focus on the words, the music and enjoy the art of the performance. What does relaxed mean anyway - the music must come first and some of the modern performers could do well to think back sometimes and cut out the sloppy anitcs which pass for interpretation now...

[hugothebear]

Janette.. an addendum to my earlier reply...to relax or not... I was reminded that in his youth Gerald Moore accompanied the ageing and formidable Dame Nellie Melba, I think he remembered it as a terrifying experience so in comparison I am sure he was blissfully relaxed with the exquisite Schwarzkopf at his side :-)

[orionedwin]

Pure LOVE!

[1singit]

Tenorismo,

That's my point and you are correct.

[lizsmithnz]

Du holde Kunst, in wieviel grauen Stunden,

Wo mich des Lebens wilder Kreis umstrickt,

Hast du mein Herz zu warmer Lieb entzunden,

Hast mich |: in eine beßre Welt entrückt! :|

Oft hat ein Seufzer, deiner Harf' entflossen,

Ein süßer, heiliger Akkord von dir

Den Himmel beßrer Zeiten mir erschlossen,

|: Du holde Kunst, ich danke dir dafür.

[1singit]

Her diction, as a native Austrian, is perfect. Notice the high posture, quiet body, animated face, timing of the breath, and "in & up" breathing a full chest remaining full to the end of phrases. This is a voice lesson which might disturb belly breathers who espouse collapsed chests.

[tenorismo]

I would think that breathing was natural ? Thinking about how your breathing is just another distraction from what your singing. There are somany thing wordspitch etc . Breathing is a natural process.

[willrobinson1229]

@1singit I agree absolutely with your description of what is good breath support, Schwarzkopf being a very good example of it.

[CynthiaS2K]

her dition ..

terrible :(

[alecs1976]

@CynthiaS2K

I totally agree....very bad diction and bad breath control...and soooo terribly mannered....awful!

[orolo]

She has terrible diction. If I didn't already know the words, I wouldn't have understood anything, and even then, I found myself thinking, "Did she just sing a real word?" quite a bit.

[budanbahuidl]

Love Schwarzkopf - but check Katleen Ferriers interpretation on this!!!

[fairlytaleofnewyork]

Outstanding piece...

[mozartiikodesu]

G. Moore is most excellent historic pianist.

He accomplished many monumental works in "Lieder"music with D.F.Deauskau and E.Schwarzkopf and more...

[bilstew]

loyely singing,Great accompaniment by Gerald Moore. I also love this song sung by the great Kathleen Ferrier..

[cca1954]

Bravo!!I adore this song!!

[burtdoc]

du holder Kunst, Ich danke dir!

[BachLoveNat]

THANK YOU!!!!! BRAVO!!!

[Dobrib]

Marvellous singing and so beatiful voice.Brava!TY

[CanadaPisces]

The incomparable Schwarzkopf!

[lochness11]

Perfection in her voice and interpretation.