Reviews

Fanfare magazine reviewed both Glass' Lehmann biography and the three record LP set released by the Lehmann Archives. Of the biography, Ralph Lucano writes: "Fans of Lehmann will find Glass' lengthy and loving encomium fascinating and worthwhile." The same critic refers to the song recordings as a "Bonanza...Lehmann's voice popped out of my speakers with pristine clarity and astonishing presence. I don't think she could have been more faithfully recorded had it been done yesterday...Lehmann introduces each song with a charming, pithy commentary...Her remarks are terse but informative enough to lend the album considerable educational value. The real lessons, however, are in the performances themselves. Lehmann can make even Der Nussbaum sound ftesh and new, and Schubert's famous serenade...had such a come-hither urgency that I had to fight the impulse to move closer to my speakers. The contrasting stanzas of Frühlingstraum are tellingly differentiated, and for Der Leierman, Lehmann adopts a dazed, other-worldly tone that freezes the blood. She's airy and girlish in Mozart's Sehnsuctr nach dem Frühling, and she has four different voices for Erlkönig...And she makes it all sound so easy! She chooses comfortable keys, usually a bit below the printed signatures (though she rises to a thrilling top A in Ich grolle nicht and again in the Strauss Ständchen, and she brings to life the ideal of singing as heightened speech. Lehmann confides in us, pours her heart out, tells us stories, makes us smile or weep. Her words are clearly uttered and bound firmly to the musical line, and she makes singing sound like the most natural, most immediate mode of expression anyone could imagine. Very few of her successors have matched her combination of warmth, directness, and timbral allure. To hear Lehmann is to know suddenly what we've been missing....Absolutely essentiaU" The 3 LP album is available from:

• Lotte Lehmann Archives
  c/o University Librarian
  University of California
  Santa Barbara, CA 93106