Singing in the Age of Anxiety by Laura Tunbridge;

Author:Laura Tunbridge; [Tunbridge, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Music, it is true, has no frontiers, but musicians have; and the problem now is with musicians rather than the music. As to the internationalism of art, we are frankly disrespectful; so far as this country is concerned, it has long since become a one-sided arrangement under which the imports swamp the exports. And if the artist has nothing to do with politics, so much the worse for both.19

The following year the National Government invoked the 1920 Aliens Order to prohibit the entry of certain musicians into Britain.20 Concert management company Ibbs and Tillett protested that this would break their contracts with respected foreign singers such as Elisabeth Schumann, Alexandra Trianti, and Emmy Heim and argued that, while in an ideal world a distinction would be made between good and mediocre musicians, one needed to hear them first to decide which was which. They directly contradicted the view of the Musical Times: “Internationalism in the Arts, especially music, is an absolute necessity to our national life, and it is a stronger force for world peace and understanding than we can ever measure”—rhetoric that would be heard with increasing vigor through the decade.21 The government clarified that “artists of first-rate international standing” were issued permits without question, as were those who could claim to contribute something “new, distinctive, or original in the way of musical performance or interpretation”; if no such claims could be made, they may consider allowing them to have two paid engagements.22

Although in the end few famous foreign lieder singers were prevented from working in Britain in the early 1930s, negative criticism of them became more common. The reviewer for the “Singers of the Month” column of the Musical Times in December 1931 was in particularly vituperative form.23 None of the professional singers under review at the Wigmore Hall were immune from criticism: it took time for Alexandra Trianti to warm up, and she was guilty of slurred vowels, a hard tone, and an “occasional out-of-tuneness” in Robert Franz’s “Herbst.” One Elena Gerhardt recital was said to be “very much like another”; there will be songs “in which she will exercise her glamorous sway, those in which she will be fussy, and advertise faulty breath techniques.” Elisabeth Schumann was declared “an ideal interpreter of the more fanciful forms of German lieder” but sang in an English that “was at least distinct.” While the Polish singer Ganna Walska’s costumes were becoming, they were “not becoming enough to distract one’s attention from her indifferent singing. She made a hash of Schubert.” The male singers fared slightly better: the baritone Eric Marshall was suffering from a cold but “had a sufficiently authoritative knowledge of the art of singing to steer clear of the rocks [. . .] if only he were a good musician, he would have the world at his feet.” It would “be quite impossible to mistake Mr Keith Falkner for anything but an English singer—or Scotch, perhaps, as one should say”; he had a sturdy tone and straightforward

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