Abstract

Records

This article focuses on the musical records of the composer Lotte Lehmann. Lehmann's Parlophone records of German lieder and the records she made for Victor and Columbia up to 1941 or 42 document not only the unique gifts but the serious faults of those earlier years; not only the luscious voice but the' constricted, shrill high notes resulting from defective technique; not only the emotional warmth that suffused the singing, but the explosive vehemence that often tore the phrase apart. Around 1943 the need of skill and care in the use of an aging but still remarkably beautiful voice began to be evident not only in unconstricted and agreeable high notes but in the refinement and subtilization of the singing, which now achieved expressive effect through inflection of the continuous line of the phrase.