Though best known for opera and Lieder performances, Lehmann also sang and recorded lighter music: operetta, Viennese waltz songs, and pop songs of her day. This is the place to sample this delightful outpouring of spirit and joy!
Let’s start with one of the few records that Lehmann enjoyed listening to in her retirement: the Bavarian dialect folk-like song by Böhm called ‘Zuschaun. Another very light-hearted song is “A Little Flirting” or Eine kleine Liebelei by Ralton. In this same vein is “I’ll Bring You the Blue from Heaven” or Ich hol dir vom Himmel das Blau by Lehar from his operetta, Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow). Rosen’s Wenn du einmal dein Herz verschenkst or sounds like it was influenced by the tango. One of my favorites is Meyer-Helmund’s Das Zauberlied or Magic Song. Lehmann recorded May’s Der Duft, der eine schöne Frau begleitet or The in 1929. If this doesn’t bring a smile to your face, well….
Next one of the songs that Lehmann often used as a light encore: Heimkehr vom Feste or “Return from the Party”by Blech.
Lehmann recorded the light songs of Vienna when she had already left
Europe and was probably feeling a bit homesick. Ulanowsky, her pianist, was also from Vienna, and you can imagine the two of them reminiscing about the “old days.”
Dostal’s Heut macht die Welt Sonntag für mich
Leopoldi’s Wien, sterbende Märchenstadt
Benatzky’s Ich muss wieder einmal in Grinsing sein!
Arnold’s Da draussen in der Wachau
Stolz-Rubitschek’s Im Prater blüh’n wieder die Bäume
Sieczynski’s Wien, du Stadt meiner Träume
Though Lehmann fought against singing operettas because she felt it might work against her opera credentials, the recordings she made show her enjoying immensely her lighter side.
Nicolai’s Nun eilt herbei, Witz, heitere Laune
In the following recording one can hear Lehmann speaking the lines of introduction to the actual operetta aria. From Eva by Lehar: So war meine Mutter
Remember that Lehmann lived and sang in Vienna from 1916 – 1937. So it’s natural to hear her sing Johann Strauss Jr.: Der Zigeunerbaron: Ein Fürstenkind
Die Fledermaus: Lied und Czardas der Rosalinde
Die Fledermaus: Mein Herr was dächten…
Lehmann also recorded German folk songs, probably for the money. I have never heard/read that she was interested in such music, nor did she sing it in her recitals. Es waren zwei Königskinder; Es stieß ein Jäger wohl in sein Horn