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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Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier (Mono Version)
Irmgard Seefried, Kurt Böhme, Karl Böhm, Staatskapelle Dresden
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.2013
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Einem: Concerto pour piano, Op. 20 - Blacher: 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, Op. 54 - Egk: 4 Canzoni (Mono Version)
Werner Egk, Ernst Haefliger, Irmgard Seefried
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1962
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Von Weber: Der Freischütz, Extracts (Stereo Version)
Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Eugen Jochum, Richard Holm, Irmgard Seefried
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1961
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Nacht Voller Wunder
Weihnachtsmusik - Erschienen bei Preiser Records am 29.09.2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert, Brahms & Verdi: Vocal Works
Klassik - Erschienen bei Archipel am 01.01.2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Legenden des Gesanges (Volume 12) (Irmgard Seefried, soprano)
Klassik - Erschienen bei Ars Produktion am 20.09.2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn: Die Schöpfung (Munich 1951)
Irmgard Seefried, W.Ludwig, Hotter, Eugen Jochum
Klassik - Erschienen bei OperaPrima-Carillon am 01.01.2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Requiem - Bruckner: Te Deum
Chorwerk (für den Chor) - Erschienen bei Naxos Classical Archives am 01.04.2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Art of Irmgard Seefried (Vol. 9): Wolf, Hindemith, Reger
Klassik - Erschienen bei Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. am 01.01.1952
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Walter - Previously Unreleased Concert Recordings
Irmgard Seefried, NBC Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Walter
Klassik - Erschienen bei Music and Arts Programs of America am 01.08.2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Vol. 3
Klassik - Erschienen bei ArnebAudio am 28.02.2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Requiem, K. 626
Irmgard Seerfried, New York Philharmonic, Bruno Walter
Klassik - Erschienen bei Soul Light Records am 10.12.2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo