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In the 1940s and early 1950s, Irmgard Seefried was a paragon among German lyric sopranos, her voice fresh and crystalline, her stage presence vital and attractive. Although she was an intelligent and well-prepared artist, the impression she made was one of considerable spontaneity. Her Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte were very different creations, the first piquant and cunning, the latter direct and innocent, though never the pallid personality others have imposed upon her. Her Composer in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos was a defining interpretation, ardently sung and passionately acted. It was captured in live performance in 1944 and, again, in the studio a decade later when her voice was at its zenith. By the late 1950s, an early decline, which some have attributed to singing too late into pregnancy and returning to the stage too soon after childbirth, stole a good measure of freedom from her singing although she remained a strong artist dramatically.

Seefried began her training with her father who had urged a degree in music in the event she had to make her own living. She studied at Augsburg University, first with Albert Meyer and, later, with Paola Novikova (with whom she continued to work long after her career was established). Her stage debut took place at Aachen in 1940 when she sang the Priestess in a production of Aida. After Nuri in d'Albert's Tiefland, she was shocked to find that the theater's music director, Herbert von Karajan, had scheduled her for Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. As she acknowledged later, she "got away" with the role due to the theater's small size and a very lyric approach to the highly dramatic role.

After three years in Aachen, Seefried moved to Vienna where she joined that theater's ensemble of extraordinary Mozart singers. Her wartime performances were accomplished under circumstances of utter privation: little heat, little food, repeated trips to shelters during both rehearsals and performances. Seefried's Eva under Karl Böhm established her as an artist with an unlimited future and she quickly became a favorite with the Vienna public. She was honored by being chosen to appear as the Composer in Ariadne to celebrate Richard Strauss' 80th birthday and in 1946 made her first appearance at Salzburg where her Pamina became legendary. London heard her in 1947 when she performed Susanna and Fiordiligi with the visiting Vienna Opera. Susanna served for her debut role at La Scala in 1949.

Although her Susanna was well-received at the Metropolitan Opera in November 1953, Seefried did not return to that theater, but did make memorable appearances with Chicago's Lyric Opera beginning in 1961. Chicago heard her Zerlina and Marzelline in her debut year and her still-wonderful Composer in 1964.

In addition to opera, Seefried was a first-rank interpreter of Lieder and a concert singer much in demand. In her prime years, her singing of the soprano solo portions of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and, above all, Haydn's Creation was unsurpassed. She performed all three of these works with Wilhelm Furtwängler, an influential guide and mentor. Seefried's recitals at Salzburg and elsewhere came to be treasured events. Many of her earlier Lieder recordings support the reputation she enjoyed among connoisseurs of beautiful and communicative singing.

Anton Dermota was a Slovenian lyric tenor known for his interpretations of Mozart in the mid-20th century. Throughout his long career, he also performed concert music and lieder, and served as a music educator. He was born in 1910 in the town of Kropa, Slovenia, which was a community of metalworkers and blacksmiths. His father was also a metalworker and earned a small income fabricating nails for construction. As children, Dermota and his siblings supplemented their inadequate diets by foraging fruit and stealing from neighboring farmers' fields. In the late 1920s he attended the Ljubljana School of Organists, and later he changed his focus to singing. In 1934 he won a scholarship to study music in Vienna, where he received vocal lessons from Marie Radó-Danielli. He made his operatic debut that same year at the Cluj-Napoca National Opera Theater in Romania. A short while later, he accepted an invitation from Bruno Walter to join the Vienna Staatsoper. Dermota made his debut there in 1936 and sang his first major role in 1937 as Alfredo in Verdi's La Traviata. He also made his Salzburg Festival debut that same year, with Arturo Toscanini conducting Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. He became a celebrated and beloved fixture in Vienna and remained with the Staatsoper for over 40 years. In addition to his career in opera, Dermota was also an active recitalist and gave countless performances accompanied by his wife, pianist Hilde Berger-Weyerwald. For 30 years he remained in high demand and toured extensively, performing at every major opera house in Europe and Australia, and the Teatro Colón of Argentina. In the realm of concert music, he was respected for his performances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. In 1966 he and his wife began teaching at the University of Music and Performing Arts of Vienna. He celebrated his 40th anniversary with the Vienna Staatsoper in 1977, and in 1979 he sang in the United States for the first time, at a recital in Stanford, California. Two years later he sang the role of Tamino in Mozart's The Magic Flute, in his final performance with the Vienna Staatsoper. He continued performing in Slovenia and Austria until 1989, when he died from heart failure in Vienna. ~ RJ Lambert

Thoroughly Viennese, bass-baritone Erich Kunz excelled in serious roles (although he sang rather few), comic parts and in operetta characterizations. An indispensable participant in recording producer Walter Legge's Champagne Operetta series in the early 1950s, Kunz, together with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, defined Viennese operetta style -- its lightness, grace, and charm. With a rich, masculine voice, he was a definitive Figaro, Leporello, and Papageno in the tradition of Mozart performance that sprang from the Vienna Opera immediately after WWII. An incomparable Beckmesser, his interpretation was preserved on two live recordings, and he left a number of delightful recordings of Viennese café and university songs.

Kunz studied in his native Vienna, primarily with Theodore Lierhammer at the Vienna Academy. His debut took place at Tropau in 1933 as Osmin (a part for deep bass) in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Following that, he sang with a number of smaller German theaters before being engaged by the Breslau Opera for three years. Kunz made his first acquaintance with England when he was offered an opportunity to understudy at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1936. He was soon thereafter assigned several smaller roles.

In 1941, Kunz became a part of the company at the Vienna Staatsoper where he remained throughout his career; he was given the title of Kammersänger in 1948. During the war years, he sang throughout Austria and Germany, primarily in Mozart and Wagner. He made his debut at the Salzburg Festival in 1942 as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte and in 1943 became the youngest artist ever to have appeared in a major role at the Bayreuth Festival when he sang Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger.

Once the hostilities ended, Kunz's career assumed a still more international flavor. Opera performances took him to Florence, Rome, Naples, Paris, Brussels, Budapest, and Buenos Aires. His role at the Salzburg Festival grew and he was a part of the Vienna Staatsoper troupe touring England and France in 1947. The following year brought his debut at the Edinburgh Festival.

A Metropolitan Opera debut waited until 1952, but Kunz's appearance as Leporello on November 26 brought a warm response from the audience and positive reviews from the critics. Both local and national writers commented upon his handsome voice and subtle comic skills. Many could recall only a few comparable artists in a role frequently immersed in slapstick routine. The Metropolitan Opera enjoyed his presence for just two years. In addition to Leporello, Kunz appeared as Mozart's Figaro, Beckmesser, and Faninal in Rosenkavalier. Chicago heard his treasurable Harlequin in Ariadne auf Naxos and Leporello, both in 1964 and, two seasons later, his wily, yet innocent Papageno in Die Zauberflöte.

While musical tastes had moved from the elegant Mozart style of post-war Vienna to an earthier, more robust Italianate approach by the 1960s, Kunz's inimitable stage persona lost nothing of its potency. Nor did his voice; he continued to sing well even in his sixties and continued to undertake small roles (unforgettable cameos, all) to the end of a long career. In addition to opera house appearances, Kunz graced the stage of the Vienna Volksoper from time to time, giving lessons to both audiences and fellow artists in operetta style and singing.

Among the recordings of lasting value Kunz made during his prime years are, besides Meistersinger (two live from Bayreuth), Le Nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte and each and every one of his operetta discs on Angel Records/EMI.

Pierre Léon Marie Fournier was born into a military family. His father was a general; his mother was musical and taught him piano lessons. At the age of 9, he suffered a mild attack of polio. Weakness of his legs made pedaling the piano difficult. So he turned to the cello, and after making rapid progress, he was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire. His teachers there were Paul Bazelaire and Anton Hekking; he graduated in 1924 at the age of 17. Fournier made his debut the year after his graduation. This was a solo appearance with the Concerts Colonne Orchestra, which received favorable notices. The almost invariable comment in reviews was the perfection of his bowing technique. He began a successful career as a touring concert artist and as a performer in chamber music concerts, gaining a great reputation in Europe.

In 1937 to 1939, he was the director of cello studies at the Ecole Normal. It was often said that he became a friendly rival with his contemporary, cellist Paul Tortelier, and after attending a Tortelier concert remarked to him, "Paul, I wish I had your left hand." Tortelier responded, "Pierre, I wish I had your right." To Fournier, the secret of his great right hand (i.e., bowing technique) was keeping the elbow high, holding the bow firmly, but allowing the hand and arm to move fluidly. He prescribed the Sevcik violin bowing studies for his cello students.

In 1941, he became a member of the faculty at the Paris Conservatoire, but during the war years, his concert touring career was impossible. Once the war was over, though, was able to resume and he rapidly increased in fame and international stature. His old audience found that he had grown in artistic depth. Hungarian violinist Joseph Szigeti, meeting Fournier in rehearsals for a 1947 Edinburgh Festival appearance, had not heard him for over ten years and wrote that he was "tremendously impressed by the Apollonian beauty and poise that his playing had acquired in the intervening years. Szigeti, Fournier, violist William Primrose, and pianist Artur Schnabel formed a piano quartet in those years and gave some fabled concerts at which they played virtually all of Schubert's and Brahms' piano chamber music. Sadly, the BBC acetate air checks of this cycle were allowed to deteriorate and have been lost.

Fournier made his first U.S. tour in 1948. His chamber music partner Artur Schnabel spread the word among cellists, other musicians, and critics that they were to be visited by a great new cellist. The New York and Boston critics were ecstatic. He had to give up his Conservatoire post because of his expanding concert career; he appeared in Moscow for the first time in 1959. Commentator Lev Grinberg wrote that he was notable for a romantic interpretation; clarity of form; vivid phrasing; and clean, broad bowing all "aimed at revealing the content."

He had a broad repertoire, including Bach, Boccherini, the Romantics, Debussy, Hindemith, and Prokofiev. Composers Martinu, Martinon, Martin, Roussel, and Poulenc all wrote works for him. He had a standing Friday night date to privately play chamber music with Alfred Cortot, the eminent French pianist, at which they might be visited by musicians like Jacques Thibaud. In 1953, he became a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor and was promoted to officer in 1963.

In 1972, he retired to Switzerland and gave master classes. He still gave concerts, even as late as 1984 when he was 78, and a London critic praised the fluency of his playing and his strong and solid left-hand technique.

The daughter of Russian immigrants to Paris, harpist Lily Laskine was drawn into music by both parents. Her mother was a pianist, and she took up the piano at first. But she took more strongly to the harp, and soon she was practicing the instrument, at her mother's behest, for six hours a day. All one needs to play the harp, Laskine once said, is good fingers and a sacrificed childhood. At age eight, after some jawboning on her mother's part opened the doors, Laskine started lessons with Paris Conservatoire professor Alphonse Hasselmans, and three years later she enrolled at the venerable music school. By 1906 she had won the conservatory's top prize, and she formally embarked on her career at 13, never taking another harp lesson but continuing to absorb music and its lore throughout her life.

What made Laskine a figure strongly identified with the harp over much of the world was her catholic interest in its entire literature, regardless of genre boundaries. She refused to be categorized as a recitalist and sought out opportunities to play wherever they might be found. In 1909, she became the first female member of the Paris Opéra Orchestra, on any instrument. She remained at the Opéra until 1926, also performing with concert series orchestras such as that of the Lamoureux Association and with an orchestra led by conductor Sergey Koussevitsky. In the 1930s Laskine made several European tours and began her recording career, which included both classical and popular releases. She was heard on records with Edith Piaf, Maurice Chevalier, and other greats of French popular song, and she contributed to many film scores. In 1979 she won the Grand Prix du Film Musical for her work on the score for La Leçon de Musique.

A duet partner of French flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal for several decades, Laskine continued to perform and record until late in life. Several harp concertos were written for her, and she uncovered unknown historical works for harp such as Gossec's Symphonie concertante for two harps. Laskine served as professor of harp at the Conservatoire from 1948 to 1958, in which year she was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

Artur Rodzinski was an American conductor active during the first half of the 20th century. He was known for both his fiery and impulsive style, and his ability to train and develop orchestras.

Rodzinski was born in 1892 in Spalato, Croatia, to a Polish family. When he was six years old, he became interested in music and he started to learn the piano. Around this time, his family moved to Lemberg, Austria, where his father worked as a general in the Austro-Hungarian military. Rodzinski later became a law student at the University of Vienna due to pressure from his father, but he also continued his music education. He studied conducting with Franz Schalk, and he also received instruction from Emil von Sauer, Joseph Marx, and Franz Schreker. He served in the Austro-Hungarian military and fought in World War I before embarking on a professional career in music. In his first appointment, he worked as a choral conductor in Lwów, and then in 1920 he made his operatic conducting debut in a production of Verdi's Ernani. The following year, Rodzinski became the conductor of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Opera. He directed many important Polish premieres, including Strauss' Rosenkavalier and Ravel's L'heure espagnole.

While visiting Poland, Leopold Stokowski heard Rodzinski conduct Wagner's Die Meistersinger con Nurnberg, and he was very impressed. He invited Rodzinski to work with the Philadelphia Orchestra as guest conductor, which led to his American conducting debut in 1925, and an appointment as assistant conductor in 1926. He also became the head of the opera and orchestral departments at the Curtis Institute of Music. Three years later, he left his position with the Philadelphia Orchestra and he moved to Los Angeles, where he started conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra as a replacement for Georg Schnéevoigt. In 1933 Rodzinski began an appointment as the musical director of the Cleveland Orchestra and developed it into a world-class ensemble. He introduced opera and more modern works into the orchestra's repertoire, including composers such as Stravinsky, Jerome Kern, and others. The climactic point of his time in Cleveland was in 1935, when he conducted the U.S. premiere of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Shostakovich.

By 1937, Arturo Toscanini was aware of Rodzinski's reputation and requested that he assemble and train the NBC Symphony Orchestra, to be conducted by Toscanini. He also worked with the New York Philharmonic, as a popular guest conductor. Beginning in 1943, he served as its musical director, but he did not get along with orchestra manager Arthur Judson and was dismissed in 1947. This was followed by a tumultuous season with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Rodzinski was once again unable to cooperate with the orchestra management and was dismissed after 11 months. Regardless of his professional controversy, his season with the CSO was a huge success among audiences and critics. His health began to deteriorate after this point in time, but he remained active as a guest conductor and was very successful in opera. Rodzinski passed away in Boston in 1958, just days after a performance with the Chicago Lyric Opera. Throughout his career, he was a champion for women's rights in the classical music community, and he was an advocate for female employment in professional orchestras during World War II. ~ RJ Lambert