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LAUDATION
for the ceremony of awarding an honorary doctorate
to Maestra CHRISTA LUDWIG
on 18th March 2008




Professor W³odzimierz Zalewski
Professor W³odzimierz Zalewski
Professor W³odzimierz Zalewski

Today we will welcome an outstanding person in the circle of the Honorary Doctors of our Academy: Christa Ludwig - the artist-singer whose vocal interpretations determine the most perfect canon for vocal arts of the 20th century. It is a true honour and a big day for our Academy, and especially for the Department of Vocal Studies, for instance because honorary doctorates are different from all the other university titles, obtained as successive stages of pedagogic and artistic expertise.
Th is honorary title is a tribute of the community of artists-pedagogues to the artistry, talent and achievements of another artist-pedagogue. We hereby thank you for your presence in our humble circle.
To satisfy the proceedings let me present the artistic achievements of our Guest - in short, due to the limited amount of time. Here I need to confess that, despite the obviousness of this situation, I feel slightly intimidated by my role. For in the world there is no musician, singer or a simple vocal arts lover who would not know and admire her career.
Ms Christa Ludwig, born in Berlin, comes from an artistic family - her mother Eugenia Besalla - Ludwig was an appreciated singer and her most important vocal teacher. Her father - Anton Ludwig - also was a singer and later he was as well a director of an opera theatre in Aachen. Christa Ludwig debuted in 1946 with the role of Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus in Frankfurt am Main.
First she was connected with German opera theatres in Darmstadt, Hannover and Hamburg. A landmark in her career was 1954, when she was invited by Karl Böhm for the role of Cherubino in the opera The Marriage of Figaro by W.A. Mozart at the Festival in Salzburg, where she performed regularly until 1984.
In 1955 she became a member of an outstanding ensemble of Vienna's Staatsoper for long years. It was there where the artist became her great international career, which resulted in her performances on the most important opera stages in the world - from New York's Metropolitan Opera, through Milan's La Scala, Berlin's Staatsoper, London's Covent Garden, Chicago's Lyric Opera, operas in Paris, San Francisco, to Tel Aviv and Tokyo.
Gifted with a beautiful and a very expressive mezzo-soprano voice, she soon became a great revelation of world opera stages. Her perfect mastery of vocal technique allowed her career to last for almost fifty years. She delighted with the richness of colours, timbre and elasticity of her voice, brilliant phrasing and transmission of beauty of the word. Her unique personality was combined with perfect acting skills, an ability to communicate with the orchestra, and with good stage looks.
Apart from great mezzo-soprano roles she also has dramatic soprano roles in her repertoire. With equal success she performed the part of Verdi's Lady Macbeth, Rossini's Angelina, Strauss's Octavian and Marschallin, Wagner's Ortrud and Fricka, Gluck's Ifi genia, Mozart's Dorabella. Her versatility is admirable, especially that her talent developed among such stars as Maria Callas Victoria de los Angeles, Renata Tebaldi or Elizabeth Schwarzkopf.
She is one of the most outstanding interpreters of vocal lyric - it is enough to mention what a great event became her performance of Shubert's "Winterreise" - which was regarded as a typically men's cycle. Not so many women had this artistic courage.
She delights the audience not only with musical ways of expression used in a refined economical way but also with the beauty of the word. In this respect she is a model of a mature, well balanced - in other words - perfect performance.
Apart from the above mentioned opera repertoire, Christa Ludwig performed very intimate songs by the late Romantics, only with a piano accompaniment or with great orchestras. She is a model, not to say a perfect, interpreter of poetic works by Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Hugo Wolf, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss.
She also has the greatest oratorio-cantata works - from Bach and Mozart to Verdi and Mahler on her scorecard.
She worked with the most outstanding conductors of the 20th century - Karl Böhm, Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein (those three played the greatest role in her musical career), Otto Klemperer, David Barenboim, Carlo-Maria Giulini, James Levine, George Solti, Seiji Ozawa, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Zubin Mehta and many others.
Her partners on stage and in a recording studio were for example: Walter Berry, Maria Callas, Franco Corelli, Nicolai Gedda, Nicolai Giaurov, Herman Prey, Rolando Panerai, Anna Moffo, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Peter Schreier, Lisa Della Casa, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Alfredo Kraus, Mirella Freni, James King, Bernd Weikl, Hans Hotter, Hildegard Behrens, Leonie Rysanek, Peter Hoffman, Theo Adam, Tatiana Troyanos, Gwineth Jones, Luciano Pavarotti, Margaret Price, Renato Bruson, Lucia Popp, Francisco Araiza, Raina Kabaivanska, Birgit Nilsson, Gottlob Frick, Gundula Janowitz, Karl Ridderbusch, Ziegfrid Jerusalem, Matti Salminen, Rene Kollo, James Morris, Kurt Moll, Hans Sotin, Marti Talvela, Jessie Norman, Ileana Cotrubas, Barbara Hendricks, Helen Donath.
This peculiar "attendance register" is really impressive and it proves how much her talent is respected by the music circles and by the audience.
Christa Ludwig is a versatile singer, admired and engaged in many theatre productions.
I will only present the artist's most important opera roles in short:
The initial successes she enjoyed in the so-called en travesti roles when she for example sang the roles of: Octavian, Composer (in The Cavalier of the Rose and Ariadne on Naxos by R. Strauss) or Cherubino (in The Marriage of Figaro by W.A. Mozart) were only the beginning of her career. She debuted in the United States in 1959 at the Lyric Opera in Chicago in the part of Dorabella in the opera Cosi fan tutte by W.A. Mozart. In the same year she for the first time appeared in the part of Cherubino at New York's Metropolitan Opera, where she performed regularly almost until the end of her career on stage.
In 1964 she had her debut at the Festival in Bayreuth with the role of Brangaene in Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. Five years later she for the first time appeared an London's Covent Garden as Amneris in Verdi's Aida.
Together with the natural development of her voice, the artist slightly changed her repertoire from lyric, through lyric-dramatic, to stricte dramatic parts. Her enormous vocal capacities let her perform also some soprano parts.
She became famous first of all as an unequalled performer of the roles in operas by R. Strauss and R. Wagner. She will go down in the history of vocalism thanks to such roles as Ovtavian, Marshallin, The Dyer's Wife...Ortrud, Fricka, Kundry, Brangaene, Waltraute and Venus. She is also known as the great Leonore in Fidelio by L. van Beethoven or finally as Lady Macbeth in Macbeth by G. Verdi. She also performed the title role in the premiere of The Visit of the Old Lady by Gottfried von Einem. She performed the roles of Klytemnästra in Elektra, Dido in Les Troyens, Azucena and Mrs. Quickly in Falstaf, Countess in The Queen of Spades, Dalila in Samson and Dalila.
In the season of 1993-1994 Christa Ludwig gave a series of farewell concerts in many cities of the world. She gave her last concert at the MET in the part of Fricka in Die Walkuere by R. Wagner. She finally parted with the stage, but not with music, during a concert in Vienna in 1994.
In the same year she published her memoirs titled "...und ich wäre so gern Primadonna gewesen", which, translated into English, had their new edition in 2004. As the authors herself admits, she wanted to write a book that would a least partly help young singers understand the sophisticated world of "vocal industry", that is, the contemporary opera vocalism in general.
Christa Ludwig is still active today as a pedagogue on master classes, workshop, opera meetings, sharing her knowledge with young singers. She is also a juror at many prestigious international vocal competitions.
The phonographic recordings are a separate chapter of the artistic achievements of Christa Ludwig. Remembering a lot of her unofficial recordings, it is hard to give at least an approximate number of them. Only for the great companies, for example Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, RCA, or Sony she recorded over a hundred albums with operas, recitals and with oratorios and cantatas.

The great majority of them are the pride of many musical collections - we need to mention at least such recordings as:
    B. Bartók - Bluebeard's Castle (Kertész/Decca 1965);
    L. van Beethoven - Fidelio (Klemperer/EMI 1962);
    V. Bellini - Norma (Serafi n/EMI 1960);
    L. Bernstein - Candid (Bernstein/DG 1989);
    Ch. Gluck - Iphigénie en Aulide (Böhm/Orfeo 1962);
    E. Humperdinck - Hansel and Gretel (Eichhorn/RCA 1971);
    W.A. Mozart - Così fan tutte (Böhm/EMI 1962);
    W.A. Mozart - Don Giovanni (Klemperer/EMI 1966);
    W.A. Mozart - The Marriage of Figaro (Böhm/Philips 1956);
    J. Strauss - Die Fledermaus (The Bat) (Ackermann/Classic for pleasure 1959);
    R. Strauss - Capriccio (Sawallisch/EMI 1958);
    R. Strauss - Die Frau ohne Schatten (Karajan/DG 1964);
    R. Strauss - The Cavalier of the Rose (Karajan/EMI 1956);
    G. Verdi - Falstaff (Karajan/Philips 1980);
    G. Verdi - Macbeth (Böhm/Legato 1970);
    R. Wagner - Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods) - (Solti/Decca 1964);
    R. Wagner - Lohengrin (Kempe/EMI 1962);
    R. Wagner - Parsifal (Solti/Decca 1972);
    R. Wagner - Tannhäuser (Solti/Decca 1971);
    R. Wagner - Tristan and Isolde (Böhm/DG 1966);
    R. Wagner - Die Walkürie (the Valkiria) - (Solti/Decca 1965).

From her albums with songs and oratorios we need to mention the following items:
    G. Mahler - Das Lied von der Erde (Klemperer/Wunderlich/EMI);
    G. Mahler - Kindertotenlieder, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and fi ve Orchesterlieder (Boult, Klemperer/EMI);
    Ausgewählte Lieder by Mahler, Berg, Brahms, Pfitzner, Strauss - Live recordings 1963/68 (Werba/Orfeo);
    F. Schubert - Lieder (Gage/DG);
    F. Schubert - Winterreise (Levine/DG);
    Wagner, Brahms, Beethoven, Mahler - Wesendonck-Lieder etc. (Klemperer/EMI);
    G. Mahler - Symphonies 2 and 3 (Bernstein/DG);
    J.S. Bach - Matthäus-Passion (Karajan and Furtwängler/EMI/DG);
    L. van Beethoven - Missa solemnis (Karajan/DG);
    G. Verdi - Messa da Requiem (Giulini/EMI).

This is only a small part of her achievements in this field. The common feature of these recordings is their permanent artistic value. Thus, it is not surprising that the recording companies eagerly look to their archives from time to time and publish the materials unknown before.
Moreover, the largest world recording companies reissue the already recognized albums in the cycles devoted to classic vocal performances, which is the best proof of their artistic value.
Now I would also like to mention a very recent event - Christa Ludwig is the honorary patron of the 42nd edition of the tradeshow called MIDEM Classique & Jazz 2008 and the laureate of a prestigious award for her whole artistic achievements - the ceremonies connected with it have just taken place.
In the spring of 2008 there will appear a special collection of Christa Ludwig's recordings issued on this unique occasion by the EMI. It is undoubtedly a tribute of the international music circle to an outstanding Artist.
Apart from the above, Christa Ludwig received other numerous very prestigious artistic awards, honorary decorations and titles and the highest state recognitions in her home Germany, France and Austria. It is enough to mention: Austrian title Kammersaengerin (1962), Austrian Cross "Für Kunst und Wissenschaft" (1969), Honorary Member of Vienna's Staatsoper (1972), Goldener Ring der Wiener Staatsoper (1980), Silberne Rose der Wiener Philharmoniker (1980), Goldene Gustav-Mahler-Medaille (1980), Hugo-Wolf-Medaille (1980), Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1989), Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (2004).
One has to admit that there are not so many artists who can boast so many honours.
At this point I would like to make a minor digression: I especially do not value the so-called lists or rankings because, in my opinion, they belong to another order than the artistic one. However, I would like to mention one of them now - in 1999 British musical critics created a list of one hundred vocalists of the 20th century. Christa Ludwig was in the top ten most important figures shaping the image of opera theatre. Although, in my opinion, justified discussions in the circle, this part of the list was commonly accepted.
I would like to share a few more remarks. Of necessity, this short outline only touches on the phenomenon of work in this immeasurable artistic domain. There are no strict norms or indicators with which we could weigh and measure the value of this most perfect musical instrument. But the greatest artists in this field can provoke the most subtle and the strongest emotions like no one else. Even the most complex and elaborated philosophical and aesthetical analyses only touch on the surface of both the artistic work and the reception of this specific work of art. You can even be an outstanding theoretician and expert of art and never reach the heart of the matter.
With her interpretations Christa Ludwig simply inspired enthusiasm and respectful adoration. Thomas Mann beautifully called her "Mademe Soleil".
I would like to remind you of one more episode that has already become a legend. In 1991 there was issued a 4-CD album containing vocal achievements of Christa Ludwig, recorded during the first years of her career on stages of the whole world. Right before the album was issued, in 1990, Leonard Bernstein wrote that he had always regarded Christa Ludwig as an unparalleled performer of songs by Brahms until he heard her interpretation of Strauss's music. For him she was the greatest performer of the part of the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier (The Cavalier of the Rose) until he heard her in the works by Mahler, when he in turn had to regard her as the best berformer of the works by this composer. Finally, when he heard her in the works by Wagner, and next he saw her amazing interpretation of The Old Woman in his own operetta Candide, he had to give up and he admitted that Christa Ludwig was the best in everything she performed.
Certainly, we cannot regard this statement as a courtesy of old friends.
Finally, let me share a few more thoughts with you. The person of Christa Ludwig shows how an outstanding artist could achieve the ultimate mastery and success against political, ideological and economic turmoil of the 20th century. For the young singers, who make their debut in different times today she is a great example of a pure artistic career and a great attitude to life in a human dimension.
In her artistic career, Christa Ludwig also had a "Polish episode", when she cooperated with Sinfonia Varsovia.
Our city has a rich, centuries-old music tradition - one could enumerate the whole array of celebrities connected with it. I am very happy that in this symbolic way we can honour and include one more outstanding figure to this circle today.
I hereby would like to welcome Ms Christa Ludwig in the cirle of the Honorary Doctors of the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw.
The fact that a person, who so well-deserved for the world music culture, wanted to join us is the great honour for the whole academic community. Please accept our sincere thanks.

W³odzimierz Zalewski


Compiled by: The Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music