Sunday 28 April 2013

Schubert's offensive language

HERE is a clip from a disc recording made on 11/11/1903 of Schubert's Du bist die Ruh. The singer is Johanna Gadski.  She extends notes at the expense of line, a reminder that styles change. But read the disclaimer : "WARNING: These historical recordings may contain offensive or inappropriate language."

This disclaimer applies to all historical material in the Library of Congress some of which reflects "historical" values we don't nowadays support. But I think we can assume Schubert and Friedrich Rückert weren't contentious. A regular reader writes "Gadski was a Prussian,  who used to sing Wagner under Mahler  when he conducted in New York. She tended to get bigger billing than Mahler according to Henry-Louis de la Grange."


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