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While American-born sopranos have been making waves since the days of Lillian Nordica in the early 1900s, West Hartford, CN, native Teresa Stich-Randall may have been the first American soprano whose popularity abroad outstripped her reputation at home. Stich-Randall studied voice at the Hartt School of Music, Columbia University, and finally New York University, where she made her debut in 1947 creating the role of Gertrude Stein in the premiere of Virgil Thomson's opera The Mother of Us All. In 1948 Stich-Randall also created the title role in Otto Luening's opera Evangeline. Stich-Randall's talents attracted the attention of maestro Arturo Toscanini, who cast her in a number of parts in the 1949-1950 season, fortunately so in the minor part of Nanetta in Toscanini's last performance of Verdi's opera Falstaff, leading to Stich-Randall's presence on one of the most celebrated recorded opera sets ever made.

In 1951 Stich-Randall made her European debut in Florence, Italy, and that same year took first prize in an international singing competition held in Lausanne. This established Stich-Randall's reputation in Europe, and although she would perform with the Chicago Lyric Opera, at the Metropolitan in New York, and on American concert tours as a soloist in the coming years, it was in Europe that most of her subsequent activity was centered. Stich-Randall was named an Austrian Kammersängerin in 1962 and was the first American accorded this particular honor; afterwards, she was contracted to the Vienna State Opera and sang there primarily until her retirement around 1980. Outside of much-heralded visits home to West Hartford in 1982 and 1983, Stich-Randall had been little heard from after that.

Although Teresa Stich-Randall is hardly a household name, she had many fans among those who collect vintage vocal recordings. In her concert career she frequently sang works by Handel and J.S. Bach. Stich-Randall's approach to Baroque music was signified by her light tone with no more than a subtle vibrato, clear enunciation, and an infallible sense of pitch. Stich-Randall was definitely ahead of the game in regard to latter-day period performance practice, and her best recordings generously bear this out, in particular her 1966 Vanguard recording of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater with alto Elisabeth Höngen.

Although thoroughly trained as a musician, Viennese tenor Julius Patzak had little, if any, technical schooling in the vocal arts. Yet, he became a favorite among audiences in his native city and second only to Richard Tauber as a master stylist in the Central European repertory. His voice, though not large, was plangent and somewhat hard-edged, capable of encompassing both lyric and dramatic roles. His forays into Viennese operetta were exemplary, full of character and knowing gestures, and sung with an immaculate sense of both elegance and forcefulness. His famous recording of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with contralto Kathleen Ferrier and Bruno Walter directing the Vienna Philharmonic has achieved legendary status.

Patzak was born into a family whose heads of household had been schoolteachers for three generations. After schooling in Vienna, he served his military obligation in Serbia. Upon his return to Vienna, he entered a career as a civil servant, working for the city's Youth Council. By this means, he was able to finance his pursuit of music at the University of Vienna, undertaken to realize his dream of becoming a conductor. His studies brought him in contact with composer Franz Schmidt, musicologist Guido Adler, and Adler's accomplished student, composer, and musicologist Egon Wellesz.

During an amateur concert presented by the Vienna Schubert Society, Patzak's singing attracted the attention of several individuals with contacts in the operatic world. The result was a contract with Bohemia's Reichenberg Theater and in April, 1926, he made his stage debut in the demanding role of Radames. The following season found him in Brno, after which he was engaged by Munich and spent the next 17 years at the Bayerische Staatsoper performing leading roles. Following the death of his first wife shortly after his move to Munich, Patzak married Maria Walter, granddaughter of the famous Bohemian Wagner tenor, Gustav Walter.

Once WWII ended, Patzak returned to Vienna where he joined the Staatsoper, remaining there until his retirement in 1960. He became an important artist at the Salzburg Festival, taking part in several world premieres, Gottfried von Einem's Danton's Tod and Frank Martin's Le Vin Herbé in particular.

Patzak confined himself to primarily to Germany and Austria, although he sang in London in 1938. He returned with the Vienna Staatsoper company in 1947 to perform Herod and Florestan and was engaged directly by the Royal Opera House management for 1948, repeating Florestan and adding his fervid Hoffmann to London's production of Offenbach's opera. Patzak's pre-war Tamino, alternating with Richard Tauber's, was regarded as "manly," if slightly "reedy." In the post-war era, Patzak's London Herod was found "wonderfully characterized" and his Florestan was hailed as a great realization.

Only one engagement brought Patzak to America. He performed at the Cincinnati May Festival in 1954 when Joseph Krips was its director.

With his voice grown larger, Patzak was, in his Vienna years, able to do greater justice to roles wanting both expressive authority and sheer vocal power. Patzak became perhaps the greatest of all interpreters of Hans Pfitzner's Palestrina. He was a superb Lohengrin, despite the absence of a truly sensuous sound. He was revered as the Evangelist in both of Bach's Passions and was the most celebrated of all singers who undertook the tenor part in Franz Schmidt's oratorio, Das Buch mit sieben Sielgen.

Patzak became a respected teacher at both Vienna's Music Academy and the Salzburg Mozarteum.

In the years between the prime of Ludwig Weber and the emergence of Kurt Moll, Gottlob Frick reigned as the leading bass in the Austro-German repertory, wielding a powerful, compact black bass of unchallenged cutting power. A quick and steady vibrato set his voice apart from other bass instruments, which were softer in timbre, offering lumbering oscillations in place of spin. Sir Thomas Beecham, having long delayed recording his enchanting interpretation of Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, found in Frick a deep bass capable of executing Osmin's runs cleanly and managing handily the requisite trills. Frick's recorded interpretations made his name a familiar one throughout the world, even though he confined most of his work to Europe. During the decade from the early '50s onward, Frick was a peripatetic visitor to the recording studio, preserving some roles on multiple sets.

After studies at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart, Frick joined the Stuttgart Staatstheater as a member of the chorus from 1927 to 1931. In 1934, he was engaged by Coburg, making his debut as Daland in Wagner's Fliegende Holländer. Following contracts with Freiburg and Königsberg, Frick became a member of the Dresden Staatsoper in 1938, remaining with that company until 1952 and steadily advancing through the Wagnerian bass roles and other specialties, such as Falstaff in Nicolai's Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor and Prince Gremin. In 1942, he created the role of Caliban in Heinrich Sutermeister's ill-fated Die Zauberinsel and, two years later, the Carpenter in Die Hochzeit des Jobs by Joseph Haas. In Dresden, Frick remained outside the centers of international activity found elsewhere in post-WWII Europe; it was not until he joined the Berlin Stadtische Oper in 1950 that his work began to attract widespread attention. In 1953, when he was engaged at both Munich and Vienna, he was already 46, but in prime voice. Covent Garden heard him for the first time in 1951, when his Hunding, Fafner, and Hagen were hailed as "somber and magnificent-voiced." London's determination to grow a home-theater crop of singers limited further appearances in the short term, but Frick was to return between 1957 and 1967 and again in 1971, even after his official retirement, to sing a memorable Gurnemanz.

Scheduling and contract difficulties kept Frick from the Metropolitan Opera until 1961. In his solitary season there, he appeared first as Fafner in Das Rheingold, then sang Hunding, the Siegfried Fafner, and Hagen. Meanwhile, he had made his Salzburg debut in 1955 (as Sarastro and in the premiere of Werner Egk's Irische Legende) and had appeared at Bayreuth as Pogner in 1957, returning there for Ring performances from 1960 to 1964. Officially, Frick retired from the stage in 1970, but he continued to undertake occasional guest appearances in Vienna and Munich (aside from his 1971 London Gurnemanz). To celebrate his 70th birthday, Stuttgart mounted Die Lustigen Weiber for him in 1976. Frick's recorded legacy is substantial enough to assure his continuing reputation. In addition to Osmin and Rocco, his Commendatore in Giulini's Don Giovanni, his Hunding, and Hagen in the Solti Ring were all captured in good form and sound. His Sarastro for Klemperer and Keèal for Kempe find him in rougher voice, although his Gurnemanz for Solti, recorded when he was 66, is a remarkable performance.

With a membership that is entirely amateur, the Vienna Singverein has developed a reputation as one of the finest choral ensembles in the world. Made up of about 200 singers, it has performed under the baton of some of today's leading conductors, including Gergiev, Ozawa, Boulez, Mehta, Muti, Barenboim, and Koopman. Such podium stalwarts from the past as Karajan and Furtwängler have not only conducted the Singverein but have held an enduring relationship with the ensemble, both in concert and on recordings. The Singverein's repertory is inclusive of a vast range, from J.S. Bach to Franz Schmidt and beyond, and while they have sung works by Verdi and Bizet and many composers outside the Austro-German sphere, they have shown a decided preference for music by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, Bruckner, and other German or Austrian composers. Although the Singverein have sung in operatic performances and recordings, Mozart and Wagner in particular, they have generally performed concert music. The Singverein has made hundreds of recordings over the years, many of them available on such major labels as Chandos, Decca, DG, EMI, Philips, and Sony.

The Vienna Singverein was founded in 1858 as a wing of the Society of Friends of Music. The roots of the ensemble actually date back to 1812, when the Society of Friends was originally formed. The Singverein's home in the concert world is the Vienna Musikverein. Johannes Brahms served as one of the Singverein's early artistic directors. Under his baton a partial premiere of his Requiem was presented by the ensemble in 1867. The Singverein developed a long history of important premieres, including those of the Bruckner Te Deum, Mahler Eighth Symphony, and the Franz Schmidt oratorio Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln.

In the 20th century the ensemble gained an international reputation and from mid-century made numerous concert tours throughout Europe, the U.S., Australia, Japan, and elsewhere. Among the more memorable concerts abroad was a 1985 performance of the Mozart Coronation Mass at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome under Herbert von Karajan, with Pope John Paul II present.

Karajan made over 70 recordings with the Singverein, many of them achieving broad critical acclaim. A number of these recordings have been made available, like the 2007 reissue of the Beethoven Ninth Symphony on DG (Grand Prix). Since 1991 Johannes Prinz has served as choir director of the Vienna Singverein.