Christa Ludwig at 90

[Barbirollians]

This great singer and judging by her contributions to Pappano's programme on mezzos -great character turned 90 on 16th March .

Thanks for the music Christa - she turns up on so many of my favourite recordings. What is your favourite musical memory of her? Whether in performance or on record .

[BBMmk2]

My goodness! She's doing very well! My mother turned 91 last week!

[gradus]

This great singer and judging by her contributions to Pappano's programme on mezzos -great character turned 90 on 16th March .

Thanks for the music Christa - she turns up on so many of my favourite recordings. What is your favourite musical memory of her? Whether in performance or on record .

Hard to come up with a single favourite, as I've never heard her sing anything I didn't think outstandingly good. Congrats to her on her birthday.

[Cockney Sparrow]

This great singer and judging by her contributions to Pappano's programme on mezzos -great character turned 90 on 16th March .

Thanks for the music Christa - she turns up on so many of my favourite recordings. What is your favourite musical memory of her? Whether in performance or on record .

I really enjoyed the Pappano "Classical Voices" series and she was an interesting and most amiable interviewee.... Sadly, for me, only a presence on recordings.

[Barbirollians]

I really enjoyed the Pappano "Classical Voices" series and she was an interesting and most amiable interviewee.... Sadly, for me, only a presence on recordings.

The recently re-released CD of recordings with Klemperer is wonderful . The almost BAL winning set of the Wesndonck Lieder, The Alto Rhapsody , an extract from Fidelio and songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn together with three Ruckert Lieder.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Few singers have managed such a long operatic career.

[Beef Oven!]

Few singers have managed such a long operatic career.

And she benefitted hugely from Reggie Goodall's incomparable 1:1 singing coaching for Parsifal. A singer/coach marriage made in Heaven!

[BBMmk2]

And she benefitted hugely from Reggie Goodall's incomparable 1:1 singing coaching for Parsifal. A singer/coach marriage made in Heaven!

Wasn’t that rather slow?

[Barbirollians]

Few singers have managed such a long operatic career.

Is that damning with faint praise Alpie?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Wasn’t that rather slow?

It'll all be over by Christmas.

[verismissimo]

It'll all be over by Christmas.

This Christmas? Great singer!

[Richard Tarleton]

Few singers have managed such a long operatic career.

She's on several of my favourite Wagner recordings - the great Böhm Tristan, the Jochum Meistersinger, the Kempe Lohengrin, the Solti Ring (as both Fricka in Walkure and Waltraute in G'Dammerung)....and of course the Klemperer Das Lied with Wunderlich....(or not with Wunderlich, as they weren't both there at the same time ) - really the go-to mezzo for the German repertoire in the mid-20thC.

[Bergonzi]

Wasn’t that rather slow?

I'm afraid that is a typical misunderstanding of Goodall's overall arching of music, and typical of many press critics with cloth ears and no brains.

[Petrushka]

I had the good fortune to see Christa Ludwig but, alas, it was only the once, in a 1985 Prom performance of the Mahler 2 with Abbado.

[gurnemanz]

So hard to pick as it's all good. Most recent discovery which I love is a Brahms song recital with Leonard Bernstein on piano. I'm jealous of those who heard her in concert.