Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was 64 when she recorded this recital called To My Friends in 1979. As it turned out, it was also her last recording:
Schwarzkopf and her mentor, producer, and husband
Walter Legge decided that this was the end of the line, and although she continued to give master classes that were frequently taped, she never made another recording. That's alright. Although this disc does not equal, and could not possibly have equaled, her earlier recordings, it is nevertheless an amazingly beautiful disc.
Schwarzkopf's voice is still up to the technical requirements of the material here -- 13 Wolf lieder, three
Brahms lieder, and one lieder each by Loewe and
Grieg -- and, much more importantly, she is way up for the interpretative demands. From the most lighthearted to the most heavy hearted, from the most ardently passionate to the most agonizingly despairing,
Schwarzkopf knows exactly how to put each song across, what to do with each phrase, each word, and each accent and how to place them for maximum effect. This is, of course, the very quality that had been most often criticized in
Schwarzkopf's performance. But while she is clearly fully aware, she is also fully engaged, and her interpretations are no less affecting for having been thoroughly thought through in advance. With the exemplary accompaniment of pianist
Geoffrey Parsons, To My Friends is a disc no fan of
Schwarzkopf -- and no fan of great singing -- will want to miss. With the focus on
Schwarzkopf, Decca's late stereo sound is clear, deep, full, and very flattering.