Lotte Lehmann’s Earliest Recordings

by Horst Wahl (translation: Judy Sutcliffe)

It is both interesting and noteworthy that the very earliest recordings of the young German singer Lotte Lehmann were produced by a French firm (using the "hill and dale" technique).

The French cylinder and disk firm Pathé Freres had always been interested in engaging well-known singers for the development of their Wagner repertoire. Among the more prominent of these recordings, primarily made in Berlin, are those of tenors Ernest Van Dyck (1903), Jacques Urlus (1903, 1910), Karl Jorn (1903, 1910), Erik Schmedes (1905), Hans Tanzler (1910), Fritz Vogelstrom (1911), Heinrich Hensel (1912), Fritz Soot (1913); baritones Friedrich Weidemann (1905), Joseph Schwarz (1910/11), Robert vom Scheidt (1911/12), Hermann Weil (1912), Walter Soomer (1913); bass Theodor Lattermann (1910), and sopranos Thila Plaichinger (1910), Eva von der Osten (1912), and Annie Krull (1913).

Shortly before the outbreak of the first World War, in February and March of 1914, talent scouts from Pathé were in Germany searching for great Wagner interpreters. Fortunate circumstances led the firm to pay attention to two singers who had just taken the first steps toward careers that would lead them to the highest fame: Lotte Lehmann and Michael Bohnen. While the young Lehmann was gathering her first laurels at the Hamburg State Theater, Bohnen, only a few months older, had his first major engagement at the Hoftheater in Wiesbaden. Both had already proved themselves in Wagnerian music drama.

Both artists were invited in early April 1914 to the Berlin Pathé studio. Trial recordings turned out satisfactorily and both artists were immediately signed to recording contracts for a year, running from April 1, 1914, to March 31, 1915. Along with a dozen recordings from Leo Slezak, the Lehmann and Bohnen disks were something of a swansong for Pathé's activities in Germany, as all further plans were stopped by the war.

It was usual for Pathé to first make the recordings—mostly in batches of six—on a large master cylinder and then to transfer them to vertically cut disks. And so it went with the Lehmann and Bohnen titles, the matrix numbers of which (with interruptions) lie between 55967 and 55991.

Both singers were called in to the Berlin Pathé studio in April 1914, and, as can be seen from their duet and from their neighboring matrix numbers, both singers were sometimes present on the same day. While Lotte made six cylinder cuts, Bohnen made l2.

Michael Bohnen, whose powerful bass-baritone even on these acoustic recordings is outstanding, began with a series of scenes from Wagner’s Die Meistersinger. He followed these with "Die Frist ist um" from Flying Dutchman, two songs of Gurnemanz from Parsifal, and both arias of the King from Lohengrin (all on 35cm disks) and finally the two Mephisto arias from Gounod’s Faust.

Lotte Lehmann sang the great Eva-Sachs duet from Die Meistersinger with Michael Bohnen ('Gut'n Abend, Meister') along with both of Elisabeth's arias from Tannhäuser and both of Elsa's from Lohengrin. The early Pathé recordings caught very well the fresh and youthful voice of the 26-year old singer with all of her charm.

While out of Bohnen's recordings, seven titles went into production, from Lehmann only two arias were released prior to the outbreak of war on August 2, 1914. These were the two Elsa arias [two acoustic, single-sided, center start, etched label disks made in Berlin in 1914, 11 1/2" (29cm) diameter, about 87rpm (sic), entitled "Lotte Lehmann, Stadt-Theater Hamburg," no conductor or orchestra known]:

• Matrix 55978 Lohengrin (Wagner) Einsam in truben Tagen, German Order No. 42048, Coupling number 5844
• Matrix 55979 Lohengrin (Wagner) Euch Luften, die mein Klagen, German Order No. 42048, Coupling number 5844.

(Reissued in Germany by Preiser Records in the Lebendige Vergangenheir series, LV 1336, entitled "Lotte Lehmann V," and on their CD "The Young Lotte Lehmann" 89302, a three CD set.

I am happy to be able to publish in this edition of the LLL Newsletter a rare letter from Lotte Lehmann that is of special interest as it presents correspondence of the artist with the first recording firm with which she was associated. It is dated February 13, 1915, with her address given as Hamburg, Dammtorstr. 11. The Pathé stamp says the letter was received on the 15th and answered the next day. Lehmann writes to the management of Pathé Freres, "I am very pleased to accept the extension of my contract to March 31, 1916. I would be much obliged if you would send me 400 marks to my account. Sincerely, Lotte Lehmann, member of the Hamburg Stadttheater (from 1916 with the Vienna Court Opera)."

The offer of the Pathé Freres, despite war and the hostility of the French people, to extend her contract until March 31, 1916, shows their apparent intentions to publish the recordings only in Germany, or with the hope that the war would soon end. It is doubtful whether she received the asked for advance.

It is worthy of note that many of the Pathé titles from Lotte Lehmann and Michael Bohnen were repeated only a few years later for Odeon and Deutsche Grammophon. Lotte's engagement with Deutsche Grarnmophon at the end of 1916 followed the expiration of her Pathé contract.