My Lehmann Connection

Having been asked why I devote so much time to Lotte Lehmann projects, I'd like to answer the question, if only partially, in this public forum. My name is Gary Hickling. I studied music at UCLA and Manhattan School of Music. I also spent three summers at the Music Academy of the West. I'm the president of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation and produce and host Great Songs for Hawaii Public Radio. I oversee CyberSing and the Annual Art Song Contest and am executive producer for the Art Song Educational Project of the Lehmann Foundation. But this article is about my connection to Lotte Lehmann.

I owe Mme. Lehmann so much, it's difficult to know where to begin. But first, to me, she was the one, both in person as a teacher, as well as on recordings, who brought human life to songs and arias.

I met Mme. Lehmann in 1963 when she was 75 and already retired from her teaching at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. I was an instrumentalist and uneasy around singers. In my mind they were just people who weren't good enough to play an instrument. I drove a friend, Katsuumi Niwa, from UCLA to Santa Barbara for his lessons with "an old German lady" and I dreaded having to sit through them. Mme. Lehmann, without trying, soon broke through these prejudices and allowed me to view the intense and real world that could be created through a simple song.

During the first lessons I just slept on Lehmann's sofa; within a few lessons I was almost as involved as my singer-friend. I found out what his assignment was to be and looked up the music myself. For instance, I had already listened to recordings and followed the music when she taught Katsuumi Schumann's Dichterliebe. I brought the sheet music to the lesson and while my friend was singing and learning I was following the same music.

What previously had seemed a ludicrous display of vocal prowess became at Lehmann's touch a meaningful interpretation of a poem as a Lied. The same was true of her portrayal of an opera role. I believe that this humanity in vocal art can be easily neglected; it is thus imperative to preserve and disseminate Lehmann's art.

Through this Web Site I hope that people will have the information necessary to study Lehmann's art, and purchase her recordings as well as books by and about her. The Lehmann Archives at UCSB and other archives around the world also help to preserve her legacy.

We can promote that which is precious and the best humans can do; it is incumbent upon us to do so. We must see that the great beauty that has been created is preserved and disseminated. There are many great artists and I know that there are similar efforts going on to preserve their legacies. My personal association with Lotte Lehmann makes it natural that I do what I can to promote and preserve her vocal legacy.

I'd like to continue with this personal recollection of the many doors that my association with Lehmann opened for me.

When I met her I had, at best, only a tolerance for things vocal. When I heard recordings of Lehmann's intensity, I quickly became a fan of hers and of opera and song. But this might not have been enough to make me obsessed without witnessing her lessons. In private lessons and master classes, I saw Lotte Lehmann demanding deep psychological probing of a poem (for song) or situational motivation (in opera arias). This all made good sense, and even an instrumentalist, as I am, could appreciate the combination of interpretive insights and musical attention for which Lotte Lehmann strove. So I bought recordings and went to vocal performances.

Lotte Lehmann's influence on me didn't end with my passive enjoyment of things vocal. She was famous as a correspondent, and I benefited from this generosity from the moment that I left the West Coast. Later while I was studying at the Manhattan School of Music, Lehmann gave a benefit master class for the school at Town Hall. By this time I felt as though she were a friend, and I had gotten to know Paul Ulanowsky, one of her favorite accompanists, at the Yale Summer School of Music and Art where I had studied. When he accompanied my schoolmates at that Town Hall masterclass, there was yet another friend on that famous stage. (Subsequently, I turned pages for him when he played for the Bach Aria group.)

At this point I must tell the story, which I call my "epiphany" related to this Town Hall master class.

Lehmann had already made some interpretive suggestions to a student soprano who was singing "Cäcilie" by Richard Strauss, but even after repeated attempts, neither were satisfied. Lehmann then got up and went to the piano. Ulanowsky, her pianist during her glory years of Lieder recitals in the 1940s and 50s, able to transpose to any key, whispered "Madame, what key?" Lehmann replied, "Original key! I'm not going to sing, I just speak it through." And demonstrated the song with such intensity and passion-even though she used a breathy low, but singing voice-that I understood for the first time true vocal artistry and was forever hooked on art song.

On the day I arrived in Manila for my first professional engagement after graduating from Manhattan School of Music, the conductor of the Manila Symphony, Dr. Herbert Zipper, brought me an envelope with Lehmann's name written large across the back. He had lived/worked in Vienna and was awestruck that this snot-nosed bassist should receive a letter from Lotte Lehmann. "Do you know Mme. Lehmann?" he asked. "Oh, yeah, she's a friend of mine," I boasted. "Please give her my best wishes and let her know that I am a great fan," Dr. Zipper gallantly countered.

Back in the US, I read Lotte Lehmann's books, and when her 85th birthday rolled around, I got the idea of doing a telephone interview and producing a tribute program for WBAI (a public radio station in New York City). She agreed and even allowed a second interview when Melchior died in the Spring of 1973. I produced four or five radio specials for WBAI, and radio has become one of my lives. Since 1988, I've produced/engineered/hosted a weekly program for Hawai'i Public Radio called "Great Songs."

Do you see how many ways that Lehmann touched my life? But there's more! When I was living in Germany, I couldn't get an invitation to orchestra auditions, largely because I was an unknown American. Lehmann wrote a letter of recommendation, whereupon I received many invitations and landed a job with the Symphony Orchestra of Berlin.

There are many wonderful people I've met as spin-offs of my Lehmann association. When I was working on the radio specials in NYC, I worked with the late Philip Miller, a song expert, in researching performances of the past and author of The Ring of Words, a book of translations of the poetry to the most important songs. The RCA producer, (again, the late) John Pfeiffer, helped me with the Melchior memorial program mentioned above. He introduced me to (yet another, late) Gustl Breuer, an Elizabeth Schumann expert/friend, for help with her radio tribute program.

Many years later, when I heard that Beaumont Glass was writing Lotte Lehmann's biography, I called him to ask if he had considered including a discography. I had developed a working Lehmann card file, and with the help of the discographic expert, Bill Moran, you can now find my work at the back of Glass' book and on this Web Site. Two people who worked diligently to edit that book were the late Roger Levenson and the person who became the coeditor of the Lotte Lehmann League Newsletter with me, Judy Sutcliffe. She and I went to Europe together in 1989 seeking Lehmann-related sound documents, photos etc. All of these people became more than working colleagues, became friends and greatly enriched my life.

While working on the Lotte Lehmann discography, I had need for research support and wrote to and met many dedicated people at such institutions as Yale, Northwestern and Stanford universities; the Library of Congress; the Rodgers & Hammerstein Library at Lincoln Center, NYC; and the opera houses: the Metropolitan, Covent Garden, Vienna, Hamburg, and the archives of the BBC....

After I was asked to give a talk on Lehmann's recordings for the Centennial Symposium at UCSB, Judy and I decided that the enthusiasm for this great artist should be kept alive and shared with a newsletter. I became involved with the Lehmann Archives at UCSB and tried to supply missing Lehmann recorded rarities to achieve a "complete" Lehmann collection. It was my wish that the Archive provide access to tapes of Lehmann's recordings for any interested party. I was able to get grants to pay for cataloging and recording. It was in part to fulfill the dream of a complete Lotte Lehmann collection that Judy and I went to Europe to find rare Lehmann material. We were very successful and along the way met many fascinating people, including the late Horst Wahl, one of Lotte Lehmann's recording technicians from the acoustic days.

One of my most memorable Lotte Lehmann moments was hearing for the first time the 16" long playing Columbia radio transcriptions which Lotte Lehmann sang in 1941. They were stored away and given to the Lotte Lehmann Archives where they were discovered by the Centennial Symposium director and then UCSB instructor, Dan Jacobson. We couldn't play them on normal equipment, so we took them to Bill Moran's and heard this "find." These recordings, in excellent shape on vinyl surfaces that turned at about 33 rpms; they were to become the Centennial LP set and now a set of CDs.

I mentioned earlier the professional contacts that I established through Lotte Lehmann, but I shouldn't forget the memorable (sometimes rocky) association I had for many years with her companion at Orplid from 1938 until Lotte Lehmann's death, the late Frances Holden. She continued to provide information for the Lehmann Archive and lived at Orplid until her death in 1996.

Another personal friend of Lotte Lehmann is Hertha Schuch, who began as a fan in Vienna. (You can see several pictures of her in the PhotoGallery). She became a valued friend of Lehmann, and has become a friend of Judy and myself. Now in her 90s, she tends Lotte Lehmann's grave, sends me photos and other memorabilia and remains one of her staunchest admirers.

With this Web Site I have a new project to spread Lehmann's legacy. At the same time I'm learning a new technology and working closely with my Web Meister, Ryan Hunt. He's patiently teaching me what I need to know to keep this site up myself. I am now renewing my Lehmann contacts around the world which had lapsed somewhat when Judy and I gave up the Newsletter in 1994. As you'll see from the News section, there's still plenty of Lehmann-related news, events, books etc.

There is no doubt that Lehmann and her influence has become a seminal element in my life. At the end of our first telephone interview for the 85th Birthday Tribute, I was able to thank her for all the joy she had given me, and she modestly responded, "That's very nice of you-and thank you for this whole program."