Kathleen Ferrier

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Kathleen Mary Ferrier CBE (22 April 1912 – 8 October 1953) was an English contralto, born in Higher Walton, Lancashire. She later moved with her family to Blackburn, Lancashire.

She came to prominence as a singer during and immediately after the Second World War, and was especially remembered for her courageous performances during her final illness.

Offstage, she had a vivacious personality, and gave herself the nickname "Klever Kaff".[1]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Ferrier left school at 14 and worked as a telephone operator in Blackburn. She married a bank manager named Bert Wilson in 1935, and moved to Silloth and later to Carlisle, Cumberland in the north of England.

Whilst in Carlisle, her husband bet her that she would not take part in a music competition. She entered and won in two categories - singing and piano. It was this which brought her talents to public attention, and was a significant factor in her deciding to pursue a career in singing. During the early days of the war she gave concerts for the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA) and then, on the advice of Malcolm Sargent,[2] moved to London in 1942, where her main career began. In the end, her marriage did not work out, and she and Bert divorced.[3]

[edit] Training

She studied with Dr Hutchinson in Newcastle and later with baritone Roy Henderson, who was a well known singing teacher at the time. The unique timbre of her voice was in part due to a medical anomaly: her throat was exceptionally wide.[citation needed]

[edit] Achievements

Ferrier excelled in the music of Mahler, in Bach and in Handel. Her recitals often included songs by Schubert, Schumann and Brahms and towards the end of her career she sang Chausson's Poeme de l'amour et de la mer - her only major work from the French repertory. Ferrier is perhaps best-remembered for her interpretations of British folk songs, including Blow the wind southerly.

She was in demand throughout the UK, and also sang regularly in the Netherlands, where she was extremely popular, and in France, Germany, Italy and in Scandinavia. She paid three visits to North America (1948, 1949 and 1950) and sang at each of the first six Edinburgh International Festivals .

Benjamin Britten wrote several works specifically for her, including Lucretia in The Rape of Lucretia, Abraham and Isaac (also written for Peter Pears), and part of the Spring Symphony (1949). Among other composers who wrote specifically for her were Lennox Berkeley, Arthur Bliss and Edmund Rubbra.

She worked with many famous conductors, including Bruno Walter, John Barbirolli, Malcolm Sargent, Clemens Krauss, Otto Klemperer, Herbert von Karajan, Eduard van Beinum and also with Benjamin Britten. She also worked with other famous singers such as Isobel Baillie, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Julius Patzak and Peter Pears.

She had previously sung Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice at Glyndebourne in 1947 and in the Netherlands in 1949 and 1951. A recording of the latter was found in the archives of the Dutch National Opera and released on vinyl in the early 1980s, but the Royal Opera House performance was sung in English.

[edit] Final role

Her final role was in Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice at Covent Garden in February 1953.

[edit] Illness/death

Already seriously ill with breast cancer, which had spread to her bones, she got through the opening night of Orfeo successfully, but at the second performance a bone in her leg broke while she was on stage. She managed to finish this performance, and left the theatre on a stretcher. It was her final performance: not long afterwards, she died on 8 October 1953, aged 41.[2]

[edit] Popular recitals

Works she was particularly well known for include:

Ferrier performed some of these pieces in both their original language, and also in English. Examples include the St. Matthew Passion, arias by Bach and Handel, and Gluck's Orfeo. Ferrier made numerous recordings in her short career, though some of her performances were not recorded, or recordings were destroyed. These include performances of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, and Messiah.

[edit] Music samples

[edit] Discography

[edit] Biography

  • Kathleen Ferrier - An Ordinary Diva, BBC Films, distributed by Universal Music & Video
  • The life of Kathleen Ferrier by Winifred Ferrier, Readers Union, 1956
  • Letters and Diaries of Kathleen Ferrier by Christopher Fifield (Editor), The Boydell Press, 2003
  • Kathleen Ferrier by Jérôme Spycket
  • "Kathleen Ferrier" An article from Musical Opinion by Judith Monk
  • La voix de Kathleen Ferrier Essai by Benoît Mailliet Le Penven
  • Kathleen Ferrier, 1912-1953 A memoir by Neville Cardus, London, Hamilton, 1954
  • Ferrier - A Career Recorded (detailed discography) by Paul Campion, Thames/Elkin, 2005
  • Kathleen by Maurice Leonard, Hutchinson 1988

[edit] References

  1. ^ Rupert Christiansen, "The glory of 'Klever Kaff'". Telegraph, 8 September 2003.
  2. ^ a b Everything you need to know about Kathleen Ferrier, BBC. URL last accessed on April 4, 2006.
  3. ^ "Klever Kaff", Ian Jack, Granta 76: Music

[edit] External links