From the phone booths of Vienna to the marble stairs of Munich

by Judy Sutcliffe

A critical period of our May 15-31 Lehmann trip to Europe was spent in stuffy phone booths in Munich, Frankfurt and Vienna. These are special booths one finds at post offices, from which one can make numerous calls, paying for them all at the end. Gary Hickling tied those phone lines in knots, making connections with people he had formerly only written to, chasing down one tip after another, finding the sought-for person "on vacation", checking home phone numbers or talking with other people in the same department, on and on, one referral leading to another, all of this almost impossible to have done from the US.

We went to see as many people as we could, so when we were not in phone booths we were running to catch street cars or trains or we were running up stairs. The stairs were always marble and the person we were scheduled to see always seemed to have an office three stories up. Gary galloped the stairs two steps at a time, and I jogged after him, feeling like a short-legged dachshund only able to take one step at a time. Our first day in Vienna we went up and down the stairs to the third-floor Austrian Radio Archive at least seven times, always at a dead run. (Yes, there are elevators, but why wait when you can run?) In between, through screetcar windows we caught glimpses of cascading lilacs and chestnut "candles" in Munich, enjoyed the Vienna inner city full of people spooning Italian ices while lounging about in the pedestrian malls, and we smiled at the green expanse of hills and forests we saw from train windows as we journeyed from city to city.

Everyone we met was extremely helpful very interested in the UCSB Lehmann Archives, and more than willing to give us their cooperation and suggestions.

Gary and I are both 48 and many of the older people we talked with expressed pleasure that a younger generation who had never heard Lehmann on stage could be crazy about their beloved Lehmann. We, too, were pleased to find along the way a number of Lehmann enthusiasts who are younger than we are. Our intentions, of course, are to assist in bringing the voice of Lehmann to the ears and hearts of generations yet unborn. Tapes, records, writers, TV, radio and record producers and announcers, vocal music teachers and the supporting archives are the means to do this. Interconnections need to be woven, so that enthusiasm can be shared with more people.

What did we come back with in our carry-on luggage? Little note-books full of scrawled names, addresses, phone numbers, two large open reels of German language interviews of Lehmann, a cassette containing short interviews from the Austrian Radio Archive, several rare 78rpm records, a charming autographed note, an interview on tape with Horst Wahl (Lehmann's recording rechnician from 1925-35), a phone interview with Martha Mödl about Lehmann, and copies of two of the four new Lehmann CDs we found in record scores.

And not in our baggage but forthcoming: 150 photos of Lehmann from Salzburg and Vienna archives; more taped interviews and off-the-air performances; archival materials from the Theater Collection of the University of Hamburg and from the Hamburg Opera Archives; tapes from the German Radio Archives; a second filmed interview by Werner Baecker; The Leo Slezak Centennial Celebration tape with Lehmann; a missing BBC interview; better copies of rare live performances; invitations to join ISIA and Friends of the Vienna State Opera; Lehmann data from

Korngold expert Berndt Rachold and from the Richard Strauss Institute in Munich; private films of Lehmann; two filmed interviews, TV memorials and celebrations from Austrian Television and suggestions about two out-of-print books about the Vienna of Lehmann's time by Otto Strasset and Hugo Burghauser. We ordeted a recent book on the history of the Salzburg Festival and bought another detailing the history of the Hamburg Opera. Both books include generous sections on Lehmann. Great numbers of photos, critical comment, theater announcements, programs and letters await further research in Vienna and Hamburg.

Among the people whom we met and talked with (and whom we deeply thank) include: VIENNA: Marcel Prawy of the Vienna Opera, who has produced many TV and radio programs and articles relating to Lehmann; Robert Werba, Austrian Radio producer, author and Lehmann record collector; Gottfried Cervenka, record collecror, producer and distributor who ordered Lehmann Centennial Albums for his Da Caruso record shop across from the Opera; Erwin Heidrich, retired bookstore owner, a Lehmann enthusiast who has donated several rare items to the Lehmann Archives; Hertha Schuch, collector and friend of Lehmann since the '30's who provided many important names for our research; Dr. Robert Kittler, head of Photo Archive of the Theater Collection of the National Library; Dr. Rainer Hubert, director of the Austrian Phonotek; Herr Neuwirt, most helpful at Austrian Radio. FREIBURG: Horst Wahl, recording technician at Odeon in the early days. MUNICH: Frank Manhold, classical radio announcer/producer at Bavarian Radio; Dr. Hejak, Archivist of the Bavarian State Opeta; Jürgen Grundheber, sound archivist, record producer/distributor; Andreas Dürrwanger, young lawyer/researcher; Walter Schwarz, Munich Philharmonic percussionist/researcher; Kevork Matouchian, sound archivist/dealer

FRANKFURT: Mechthilde Brüning and Anke Bingman at German Radio Archives. BY TELEPHONE: Berndt Wessling, author of Mehr als eine Sängerin; who has many letters and interviews of Lehmann which he is sending; Hans Landgraf of EMI Records who is sending a tape of the out-of-print LP of Lehmann which he produced; Otto Preiser of Preiser Records, who provided the name of an American distributor of his Lebendige Vergangenheit series; Jürgen Schmidt of Preiser Records, who gave us much valuable information; Fr. Cordes, Archivist of the Hamburg Opera, who is sending printed matter on Lehmann; Peter Aistleitner, record collector, Toscanini expert and researcher, who told us of relevant Lehmann people; Gunther Walter, editor of the magazine Stimmen die um die Welt gingen, who is sending Lehmann material such as copies of letters and contracts, and Christopher Norton-Welsh, record collector and vocal expert living in Vienna, who has promised us help in our on-going Vienna projects. Did we miss anything? Yes, we missed a rendezvous with music critic Alfred Frankenstein, who arrived in Vienna two days after we left, which we much regret. He had written two delightful letters to us after receiving the first LLL newsletter, and we had hoped to meet. But you will hear more about him later. We were not able to interview as many artists as we wished, but some have expressed interest to do this on their own and send us the tapes. We plan to contact: Otto Edelmann, Eric Werba, Hans Weigel, Sena Jurinac, Hermann Prey, Jörg Demus, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Söderström, Regine Crespin, Christa Ludwig, Birgit Nilsson, Judy Beckman, Dalton Baldwin, Erna Berger, Joseph Witt. We tried without success to contact André Tubeuf in Strasbourg, France. He wrote to us just prior to our trip and was most anxious to provide information or material from his vast collection of Lehmann recordings and letters.

As we finished our work in Vienna towards the end of our trip, Michael Schuch took us to lunch at Kahlenburg, overlooking the city, and then dropped me off at the railroad depot cafe with all our baggage and a large plate of cakes to wait for the traintro Munich which would leave in two hours. Michael meanwhile went home and Gary took off to Da Caruso near the Opera to pick up an amazing list of Lehman live recordings. From there he ran to Austrian Radio for a second meeting with Robert Werba, trying to get everything discussed in 10 minutes, then he grabbed a taxi back to the station. Michael Schuch meanwhile had come back to the train station to check on me and the diminished plate of cakes. It was 15 minutes to departure time. I told Michael not to worry, Gary would arrive at the last minute. So he waved goodby.

When Gary loped in a few minutes later he said he'd been running up the stairs to the cafe when he heard clapping. He looked up and there stood Michael Schuch applauding the long distance runner.