Irmgard Seefried
In the 1940s and early 1950s, Irmgard Seefried was a paragon among German lyric sopranos, her voice fresh and crystalline, her stage presence vital and attractive. Although she was an intelligent and well-prepared artist, the impression she made was one of considerable spontaneity. Her Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte were very different creations, the first piquant and cunning, the latter direct and innocent, though never the pallid personality others have imposed upon her. Her Composer in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos was a defining interpretation, ardently sung and passionately acted. It was captured in live performance in 1944 and, again, in the studio a decade later when her voice was at its zenith. By the late 1950s, an early decline, which some have attributed to singing too late into pregnancy and returning to the stage too soon after childbirth, stole a good measure of freedom from her singing although she remained a strong artist dramatically.
Seefried began her training with her father who had urged a degree in music in the event she had to make her own living. She studied at Augsburg University, first with Albert Meyer and, later, with Paola Novikova (with whom she continued to work long after her career was established). Her stage debut took place at Aachen in 1940 when she sang the Priestess in a production of Aida. After Nuri in d'Albert's Tiefland, she was shocked to find that the theater's music director, Herbert von Karajan, had scheduled her for Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. As she acknowledged later, she "got away" with the role due to the theater's small size and a very lyric approach to the highly dramatic role.
After three years in Aachen, Seefried moved to Vienna where she joined that theater's ensemble of extraordinary Mozart singers. Her wartime performances were accomplished under circumstances of utter privation: little heat, little food, repeated trips to shelters during both rehearsals and performances. Seefried's Eva under Karl Böhm established her as an artist with an unlimited future and she quickly became a favorite with the Vienna public. She was honored by being chosen to appear as the Composer in Ariadne to celebrate Richard Strauss' 80th birthday and in 1946 made her first appearance at Salzburg where her Pamina became legendary. London heard her in 1947 when she performed Susanna and Fiordiligi with the visiting Vienna Opera. Susanna served for her debut role at La Scala in 1949.
Although her Susanna was well-received at the Metropolitan Opera in November 1953, Seefried did not return to that theater, but did make memorable appearances with Chicago's Lyric Opera beginning in 1961. Chicago heard her Zerlina and Marzelline in her debut year and her still-wonderful Composer in 1964.
In addition to opera, Seefried was a first-rank interpreter of Lieder and a concert singer much in demand. In her prime years, her singing of the soprano solo portions of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and, above all, Haydn's Creation was unsurpassed. She performed all three of these works with Wilhelm Furtwängler, an influential guide and mentor. Seefried's recitals at Salzburg and elsewhere came to be treasured events. Many of her earlier Lieder recordings support the reputation she enjoyed among connoisseurs of beautiful and communicative singing.
© TiVo
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Händel: Julius Caesar
Irmgard Seefried, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Wolfgang Meyer, Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Karl Böhm
Clásica - Editado por Deutsche Grammophon (DG) el 1/01/1960
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn: The Creation
Irmgard Seefried, Richard Holm, Kim Borg, Berliner Philharmoniker, Igor Markevitch
Clásica - Editado por Deutsche Grammophon (DG) el 1/01/1957
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Art of Irmgard Seefried (Vol.10) : Wolf & Egk Lieder
Clásica - Editado por Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. el 1/01/1960
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wolf : Italianisches Liederbuch
Irmgard Seefried, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Lieder (Alemania) - Editado por Decca el 1/01/1959
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Recital of Duets by Monteverdi, Carissimi & Dvořák
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Irmgard Seefried, Gerald Moore
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 20/09/2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Art Of Irmgard Seefried – Volume 6
Clásica - Editado por Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. el 1/01/1953
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Art of Irmgard Seefried (Vol.11) : Cantatas, Oratorios
Clásica - Editado por Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. el 1/01/1958
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wolf: Italienisches Liederbuch, Morike-Lieder & Spanisches Liederbuch
Clásica - Editado por Orfeo el 1/03/2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Art Of Irmgard Seefried – Volume 7
Irmgard Seefried, Raili Kostia, Waldemar Kmentt, Eberhard Wächter, Erik Werba, Günther Weissenborn
Clásica - Editado por Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. el 1/01/1962
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Mass in C Minor, K. 427 "Great"
Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Clásica - Editado por Orfeo el 1/01/2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Symphony No. 4 (Recorded 1962) (Live)
New York Philharmonic, Sir Georg Solti, Irmgard Seefried
Clásica - Editado por New York Philharmonic el 8/12/2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Thomas: Mignon - Highlights (Sung in German)
Clásica - Editado por Deutsche Grammophon (DG) el 1/01/1964
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
R. Schumann: Frauenliebe und -leben, Op. 42 & Ausgewählte Lieder (Live)
Clásica - Editado por Orfeo el 28/06/1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Frank Martin dirige Frank Martin: Petite symphonie concertante, Maria Triptychon & Passacaille pour grand orchestre
Irmgard Seefried, Eva Hunziker, Germaine Vaucher-Clerc
Clásica - Editado por Jecklin el 1/01/1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Art of Irmgard Seefried (Vol. 8) : Wolf & Strauss
Clásica - Editado por Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. el 1/01/1954
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wolf: Italienisches Liederbuch
Irmgard Seefried, Erik Werba, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Jörg Demus
Clásica - Editado por Deutsche Grammophon (DG) el 1/01/1959
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Art Of Irmgard Seefried – Volume 4: Lieder
Clásica - Editado por Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. el 1/01/1952
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
R. Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos, Op.60, TrV 228 (Live)
Clásica - Editado por Deutsche Grammophon (DG) el 1/11/1963
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn: Die Schöpfung, Hob. XXI:2 (Live)
Walther Ludwig, Irmgard Seefried, Hans Hotter, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Eugen Jochum
Clásica - Editado por Archipel el 9/04/2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven · Symphony No.9
Clásica - Editado por G.O.P. el 30/11/2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo