Lotte Lehmann

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and you are listening to Desert Island Discs.

Speaker 10:05

This edition of Desert Island Discs was archived without the music, so although the Castaways choices are introduced, they're not part of this recording.

Speaker 10:15

Full details can be found on the Castaways page on the Desert Island Disc's website.

Speaker 10:21

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen fifty nine.

Speaker 10:25

And the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:27

How do you do, ladies and gentlemen?

Presenter0:29

I am happy to welcome ashore on our desert island this week a very famous singer.

Presenter0:34

A great artist of the Opera House and the Concert Hall, here is Latte Lehmann.

Presenter0:39

Madame Lehmann, you have spent most of your life travelling the world. Have you ever been on a desert island?

Lotte Lehmann0:43

No. Up till now I have stuck very carefully to civilization.

Presenter0:49

How would you take the solitude? Are you a a fairly self sufficient person?

Lotte Lehmann0:52

Oh, yes. I wouldn't say that it would the preference of my life to be on a desert island, but if I would be there, I know that I could make my life quite comfortable.

Presenter1:04

Do you listen much to the Grammar Van, ordinarily?

Lotte Lehmann1:07

Ah y you want me to be terribly honest, you said.

Presenter1:10

Of course, yes, please.

Lotte Lehmann1:11

Yeah, no, I don't.

Presenter1:13

Well, you're going to have an opportunity now because on this island you'll have eight records. And how did you set about choosing this eight?

Lotte Lehmann1:21

I took eight records on my trip around the world, I suppose, f from really purely sentimental reasons. All every record brings to me a memory.

Presenter1:35

Yeah.

Lotte Lehmann1:35

And that I took these records. You have to explain to me first of all how you think it was possible to get these records to that desert island. I mean the ship was wrecked. Now I took these records with me as somebody takes w when a fire breaks out, takes the next thing which is near to him. But did I swim to that island, or was I in a boat, or what did I do?

Presenter1:59

But this

Presenter2:04

Or you don't have a boat, no, you swam to the island

Lotte Lehmann2:06

And but the records What what happened to the records? Swimming through in in the water.

Presenter2:09

Uh

Speaker 22:09

Uh

Presenter2:09

Uh Uh

Presenter2:11

Yeah.

Speaker 22:11

Well, that's why we choose eight. It's a nice comfortable number to swim with.

Speaker 22:16

Uh what's the first one you've chosen?

Lotte Lehmann2:17

The first one is um

Lotte Lehmann2:20

Prelude Meistersinger Wagner. Um I have sung Meistersinger with Toscanini and in Salzburg.

Lotte Lehmann2:29

And I will always remember especially the first performance, which has been so out of this world, and how happy I was to be able to sing Eva with him, and this is the reason that I want to take that record along.

Presenter2:47

Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra in the Prelude to De Meister Singer.

Presenter2:52

Madame Lehmann, many people have said that Toscanini was rather a a frightening person to work with. Did you find him so?

Lotte Lehmann2:58

Oh yes, I should think so. I don't think there is one singer living who was not frightened of Toscanini, and if the singers say they are not, then they don't say the truth. I was always, till the last time I sang with him, always frightened to death. It is not that what shall I say, it was a kind of magic of his personality and that we knew he wanted so very much perfection. And if one did something wrong, musically wrong, or something which displeased him, we were so desperate to displease him. Therefore everybody wanted to give one's best.

Presenter3:35

Same f

Lotte Lehmann3:38

And that made us so very frightened.

Presenter3:40

Oh, I can see.

Presenter3:42

Or what's your second choice going to be?

Lotte Lehmann3:45

Omitenacht by Mahle, sung by Catherine Ferrier and conducted by Bruno Walter.

Presenter3:53

Why do you choose it?

Lotte Lehmann3:54

Oh, I love this record very, very much. I love the art of uh Kathleen Ferrier and Bruno Walter has been to me always

Lotte Lehmann4:04

One of the very great.

Lotte Lehmann4:06

He was my guide, my musical guide through so many years that I wouldn't dream of having chosen some records to take with me to this island and leaving him out.

Lotte Lehmann4:19

Since this is a a very long record, please could I hear now the ending of it, which is so incredibly impressive.

Presenter4:33

The latter part of Mahler's Mittenach, sung by Kathleen Ferrier, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Bruno Walter.

Presenter4:41

Madame Nehman, may we go back to your early days, where we were?

Lotte Lehmann4:44

Uh

Lotte Lehmann4:44

In Perleberg, a very small town in Germany.

Presenter4:47

Was there a lot of music in your life as a child?

Lotte Lehmann4:49

Yes, uh fox music.

Lotte Lehmann4:52

Not uh anything classic, but we always sang at home, the whole family.

Presenter4:57

Yeah. Was singing your very earliest ambition?

Lotte Lehmann5:01

Not an ambition, but I have sung since childhood and was always told I should be one day a singer.

Presenter5:08

Mm-hmm. And how did it come about?

Lotte Lehmann5:10

Later on when we move moved to Berlin, a woman in the same house heard me singing and she arranged an audition at the music academy and I got a scholarship there.

Presenter5:21

And where did you make your debut?

Lotte Lehmann5:23

In Hamburg. And it was nineteen ten. You see, next year I will been fifty years serving music. Don't you think that's enough?

Presenter5:31

It's very hard to believe. What was your very first row?

Lotte Lehmann5:35

a very small one, the second uh genius in um magic flute. And it took me quite a while uh to uh to come to bigger roles, which I think was very good for my development.

Presenter5:47

Mm-hmm. Well, we've got you launched on your professional career. Let's break off there and have your third record.

Lotte Lehmann5:53

My third record is frontly a vision by Strauss, sung by Elizabeth Schumann. She has been a very beloved friend of mine.

Lotte Lehmann6:02

And I have admired her as an artist tremendously, and I wouldn't dream to go to any desert island without having her voice with me.

Presenter6:13

The Voice of Elizabeth Schumann.

Presenter6:16

Madame Nehman, you sang your first opera season at Hamburg. What was the next step?

Lotte Lehmann6:20

The Vienna Opera. I went there nineteen sixteen.

Lotte Lehmann6:25

And uh my first performance was Eva in Meistersing, I remember.

Presenter6:29

Yeah.

Presenter6:30

When did you first come to London?

Lotte Lehmann6:32

I think it was nineteen twenty four. I'm not very good in dates.

Lotte Lehmann6:38

No, I came first to London in nineteen thirteen, and I I replaced Clara Dukes in Rosen Cavalier, who had cancelled the performances. I sang twice the role of Sophie with Sir Thomas Beecham.

Presenter6:48

The role of

Presenter6:50

Mhm. That was before you went to Vienna.

Lotte Lehmann6:52

Yes.

Presenter6:53

Looking back on your early years, was there any one role or one performance which opened up big opportunities which you

Lotte Lehmann6:59

Yes, Lawn Green. I think I replaced a sick colleague in Hamburg in in the role as Elza, and that was really the first time that uh I had a very big success. Otto Klemper conducted the opera.

Presenter7:12

What do we

Presenter7:15

Which have been your favourite roles?

Lotte Lehmann7:17

Oh, always a newborn.

Presenter7:20

That's a nice sound to it.

Lotte Lehmann7:20

I don't like to stick very much to one thing. My favourite roles, perhaps, have been the Mar Schallin and Sieglinde in Waukel and Elizabeth in Tannhuizer.

Presenter7:32

You devoted much of your career, of course, to to leader singing. Which work did you find the the more satisfying, opera or the concert hall?

Lotte Lehmann7:40

Oh, in the time I was an opera singer I there didn't exist anything else for me than opera. But when I stopped singing opera and I started to sing Lida, a new world really opened for me and I was very happy in this world.

Speaker 27:55

The best of both worlds.

Lotte Lehmann7:56

Yes.

Speaker 27:57

Let's have record number four.

Lotte Lehmann8:00

Record number four would be a Fischer Dieskow record, Schterp ich Zohild in Blumen meiner Gliede by Wolff. When I die, give me a shroud of flowers.

Presenter8:16

A song by Hugo Wolff, forgive me if I don't attempt the title in German, sung by Dietrich Wichel Diska.

Presenter8:22

Madame Lehmann, you gave your farewell concert in New York in nineteen fifty one. It was your intention then to retire completely.

Lotte Lehmann8:28

Oh yes, absolutely. I thought I have done enough for music and close this book and become a lady of leisure.

Presenter8:36

So you went to live in Santa Barbara.

Lotte Lehmann8:38

In Zanterba. I have lived there before with my friend Miss Rulden, but since the death of my husband. But um I really settled down there in nineteen fifty one.

Presenter8:47

Yes, but you found you couldn't give up music after all.

Lotte Lehmann8:50

Oh, after fourteen days I was very restless, and then I started to teach at the Music Academy of the West, where I am yet teaching.

Presenter8:58

Mhm. And you've given two seasons of your master classes in London.

Lotte Lehmann9:02

Yes.

Lotte Lehmann9:03

I was ve very happy.

Lotte Lehmann9:05

It was to me a great experience last time when I came after eighteen years of absence to London. I was so frightened that one has forgotten me. But I was quite overwhelmed that this was not the case.

Presenter9:17

What do you think generally of the young singers who come to your notice? Is the standard high?

Lotte Lehmann9:22

Oh yes, they are beautiful voices and very lovely talent.

Presenter9:26

Which is the most common basic failing in in technique or interpretation or acting?

Lotte Lehmann9:31

Or I think in an interpretation. Because so many young singers think if they know a song very well and if it's technically right, that then this is uh the finish, but to me it's only the beginning.

Presenter9:43

Mhm. Are there enough opportunities for young seniors?

Lotte Lehmann9:45

No.

Lotte Lehmann9:47

That's the sixty-four thousand dollar question. I don't know how it is in England, but in America it's really catastrophic.

Presenter9:53

Mm-hmm.

Presenter9:55

Well, I think we'd better have another record. Incidentally, do you believe in in grammar film records as an aid to teaching?

Lotte Lehmann10:00

No, I don't.

Lotte Lehmann10:01

I don't. I I think thi this makes the young singers imitate, and imitation is always to me very unartistic.

Presenter10:09

Well, number five.

Lotte Lehmann10:11

Number five will be Serenade Florentine by Du Parc, sung by Gerard Zuzet.

Presenter10:18

Why do you choose this?

Lotte Lehmann10:19

Because I think Satya is a singer of great charm.

Lotte Lehmann10:23

And I like him personally, I like him as an artist.

Presenter10:31

Gerard Suzet singing Dupac's Seranade Florentine. And now we come to record number six.

Lotte Lehmann10:39

Um I would choose the beginning of the slow movement of the fifth symphony by Beethoven, conducted by Franz Schalk.

Lotte Lehmann10:49

There I have a great sentimental reason. Franz Schalk has been the director of the Vienna State Opera, and he has really guided my first steps to to what shall I say, to um

Lotte Lehmann11:05

international artist. He was like a father to me and my gratitude and my admiration for him is is unending.

Presenter11:18

Franz Schaalck conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in the beginning of the slow movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

Presenter11:25

Well, here's another sixty four thousand dollar question for you, Madam Demon.

Presenter11:29

What kind of castaway would you be on this island? How would you be able to look after yourself?

Lotte Lehmann11:34

Yes, that is something which I cannot quite figure out. But you see, I think if the necessity is there, then one will find the way to live there. I don't know, are there savages on that island? Oh, no, no. Now that's good. Then I have no reason to be frightened that I will be murdered and perhaps turned into a nice soup for those savages.

Speaker 111:47

Oh no no no Uh

Lotte Lehmann11:57

I would build a a hut. I I remember the huts of the people in in Samoa, for instance, which were very primitively built with um

Lotte Lehmann12:08

leaves of palm trees. So I think I could do that, and I only hope there will not be storms or that my whole wonderful house falls on my nose.

Presenter12:19

With a lot of storms you get a lot of practice at sitting hot.

Lotte Lehmann12:22

Yeah.

Lotte Lehmann12:23

And eating, for instance. Since I I am not willing to kill any animals, I will turn.

Presenter12:23

Okay, so I think

Lotte Lehmann12:31

into a vegetarian. But what kind of a desert island do you think it is? It's only sand, or will there be some trees?

Presenter12:39

Oh, there'll be some treatments.

Lotte Lehmann12:40

Trees and then I have some roots to eat. I will take off weight. Beautiful.

Presenter12:44

Yeah.

Speaker 212:45

And for

Lotte Lehmann12:45

Unfortunately it doesn't matter then there if I'm f I'm fat or slender.

Speaker 212:49

Let's have record number seven.

Lotte Lehmann12:52

Um certainly my I am not a person who lives in the past, but this is a past which I have to take with me, the thought of Vienna. And I would like very much to uh take with me the record Wien wie no dua lai.

Presenter13:07

For RM record. Yeah.

Presenter13:14

And now we come to your last record. What's that going to be?

Lotte Lehmann13:17

I would like very much to take with me the trio of Rosen Cavalier. Ah yes. Uh Maria Olchevska as Octavian, Elizabeth Schumann as Sophie, and myself as Marshalin. Do you think it's very bad to have records of one's own voice? Is that very arrogant?

Presenter13:35

And I can't tell you how often this particular and enchanting record has preceded you to this island.

Lotte Lehmann13:40

Oh, really? Oh, how marvellous

Presenter13:47

That lovely trio from Rosen Cavalier is the last of your eight records, Madame Le Man.

Presenter13:52

You still have one more choice to make. In fact, two more. You'll take a luxury. What would you like?

Lotte Lehmann13:57

A luxury

Lotte Lehmann13:59

I think I would take my paint box along, because uh my hobby is painting. I don't know how long these colours would last there.

Lotte Lehmann14:09

But people have uh oh, ten or twenty five thousand years before Christ, they have painted already and they have invented colours, so I don't see why I couldn't. Out of uh wood or leaves, I will find a way.

Presenter14:25

Yes.

Presenter14:26

You gave a one woman share of your paintings in New York, didn't you?

Lotte Lehmann14:29

Yes, years ago.

Presenter14:30

And you also make pottery?

Lotte Lehmann14:33

Yeah, no, as every uh dilettante is ambitious, so I am overambitious.

Presenter14:40

Now if you could take one book, leaving aside the Bible or Shakespeare, what would it be?

Lotte Lehmann14:46

I uh

Lotte Lehmann14:47

I think I would take Goethe's Faust with me.

Presenter14:51

Mm-hmm.

Presenter14:53

Well, thank you, Madam Dr. Lehmann, for letting us hear your choice of Desert Island Disc.

Lotte Lehmann14:57

Thank you very much for inviting me. It was a very charming half hour, but I only hope that I will stay some time longer on a good earth instead of being cast off in a desert island. Even with very tempting records, I prefer to be here.