SCHWARZKOPF, ELISABETH (1915 - 2006)

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was born at Jarotschin, near Poznan, on 9 December 1915. Her teachers in Berlin included the Lieder singer Lula Mysz-Gmeiner, the coloratura soprano Maria Ivogun and the latter’s husband, the pianist Michael Raucheisen. This training predisposed Schwarzkopf towards the kind of career she later followed, alternating opera with concert and recital work. Having made her début in 1938 as a flower maiden in Parsifal at the Berlin Municipal Opera, she progressed to being a member of the Vienna State Opera from 1944, first coming to Britain in 1947 with that company. Thereafter she was one of the best-known singers in the world, and marriage to Walter Legge led to his using her in myriad recording projects, both suitable (Mozart, Strauss) and unsuitable (two versions of the Verdi Requiem). She also recorded many Lieder. Few singers have so violently polarised opinion but, love her or hate her, she has always been a class act. She died at her home in Schruns on the Austrian-Swiss border on 3 August 2006, age 90.

Albums featuring this artist are available for download from ClassicsOnline.com
BACH, J.S.: Mass in B Minor, BWV 232 (Schwarzkopf, Gedda, Karajan) (1952-1953)	8.111053-54
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9 (Furtwangler) (1951)	8.111060
BRAHMS: Deutsches Requiem (Ein) (Schwarzkopf, Hotter, Karajan) (1947)	8.111038
HUMPERDINCK: Hansel und Gretel (Schwarzkopf, Karajan) (1953)	8.110897-98
LEHAR: Land des Lachelns (Das) (Ackermann, Schwarzkopf) (1953) and excerpts from Lehar Operettas	8.111016-17
LEHAR: Merry Widow (The) (Schwartzkopf, Kunz, Gedda) (1953)	8.111007
MOZART: Cosi fan tutte (Schwarzkopf, Otto, Karajan) (1954)	8.111232-34
PURCELL: Dido and Aeneas (Flagstad, Schwarzkopf, Hemsley) (1952)	8.111264
SCHUBERT: Lieder (Schwarzkopf) (1952-1954)	8.111287
STRAUSS II, J.: Die Fledermaus (The Bat) (Schwarzkopf, Gedda, Karajan) (1955)	8.111036-37
STRAUSS II, J.: Nacht in Venedig (Eine) (Schwarzkopf, Gedda) (1954)	8.111254
STRAUSS II, J.: Wiener Blut (Schwarzkopf, Gedda, Ackermann) (1954)	8.111257
STRAUSS, R.: Four Last Songs / Arabella (highlights) (Schwarzkopf, Ackermann, Matacic) (1953, 1954)	8.111145
STRAUSS, R: Ariadne auf Naxos (Schwarzkopf, Streich, Karajan) (1954)	8.111033-34
VERDI: Messa da Requiem (Schwarzkopf, Di Stefano, De Sabata) (1954)	8.111049-50
WAGNER, R.: Meistersinger von Nurnberg (Die) (Karajan) (1951)	8.110872-75