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"Forever ... forever".
No one breathed, sang, interpreted the last, just breathed away, but clearly because important words in Gustav Mahler's last monumental “Lied von der Erde”, the “Farewell” so impressively.
Again and again live, but especially also on a legendary recording, made in 1967: Philharmonia Orchestra London, Otto Klemperer, Fritz Wunderlich and just - Christa Ludwig.
A classic, like the Ludwig.
“Dear earth everywhere / Blossoms in spring and grows anew!
/ Everywhere and the distant blue light!
/ Eternally ... forever ... ", so she sang, visionary in the distance and yet completely focused on Mahler.
And in spring, which is blooming and greening again, there she has now gone, died on April 24th, at her place of residence in Klosterneuburg near Vienna.
She is 93 years old.
Clear, strong, unsentimental, modest but determined, proud of her life's work, but unwaveringly interested in looking ahead, that was how she was until the end.
Also in the finish a really big one.
The greatest, because most universal, mezzo-soprano star in post-war singing history.
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“Resign, die Leut '” is what she often sang as Marschallin in “Rosenkavalier”.
She, who had played her lover Octavian before, knew how to do it.
Letting go at the right time, which has to be easy.
On December 14, 1994, at the age of 66, she sang her last Richard Strauss note.
After almost forty years on stage at the Vienna State Opera.
This Klytämnestra in "Elektra" was her 769th appearance since 1955 in 43 roles.
Vienna was her ancestral home, just like this cosmopolitan from Berlin, born on March 16, 1928, grew up in Aachen, who at the age of 18 in 1946 stood on a stage in Frankfurt as the "bat" Prince Orlofsky for the first time and lived in France for a long time was practically adopted by the Viennese.
And yet Christa Ludwig has had a flawless global career.
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Because despite the hardships of the war and the post-war period, when she had to support her family with her singing, she always got together at the right moment and at the right time with the most important people in her art who set the course for her.
Herbert von Karajan knew her as a child
Christa Ludwig was the daughter of the singing couple Anton Ludwig and Eugenie Besalla.
Her father was the opera director in Aachen, while a young, impetuous general music director climbed his way to the Classical Olympics there, but still found time to let her ride on his lap: Herbert von Karajan.
Her mother, with whom she lived until her death in 1993, remained her only singing teacher.
In addition to school, the young Christa Ludwig also attended the conservatory, where she received lessons in piano, cello, flute and music theory.
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She was well prepared, hard-working and strong in character for the heights to which she rose and could hold herself for decades.
Karl Böhm later became her first important sponsor, who brought her to the Salzburg Festival as early as 1955.
Summit meeting: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (left) and Christa Ludwig in the studio
Source: Getty Images
Where Christa Ludwig should have given one of her popular master classes this summer.
In 2019 she flirted so hard with a good-looking baritone on her last class there that everyone in the hall got a little hot.
Christa Ludwig sang under Karajan and Klemperer, George Solti, Böhm and above all under her great, late love for conductors Leonard Bernstein, the "most wonderful of all".
No big opera house, no major festival that she didn't appear at.
And she sang everything, from Bach and the Baroque to the modern Gottfried von Einems, who composed Claire Zachanassian in "Visit of the Old Lady" in 1971 in her throat.
Just as when she was young she regularly launched works by Luigi Dallapiccola, Pierre Boulez and Luigi Nono at the Donaueschinger Musiktage.
She could chirp Rossini and Carmen coo, tried her hand at Belcanto alongside Maria Callas (which she found boring and silly), was fantastic not only in Bayreuth as Wagner's Brangäne, Kundry, Fricka and Ortrud (where she heard the curse “Desecrated Gods “Regularly brought the performance to applause).
It burned with Verdi, delighted with Strauss and touched with Mozart.
In addition to an opera repertoire that is unimaginable today, it offered a huge selection of songs and concert pieces that others would not be able to manage in three careers.
As one of the first women she even sang Schubert's “Winterreise”.
Leonard Bernstein was her soul mate
She was one of the central artists in the regaining strength of classical life after the Second World War, thanks to EMI producer guru Walter Legge, she was able to get into the booming long-playing record business as well as the emerging stereophony early on.
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But she was also so wonderfully versatile that a soulmate like Leonard Bernstein preferred her for his Mahler symphonies, but also with a sexy flamenco dancer in the Tango of the Old Lady from "Candide" at the Tanglewood Festival on his 70th birthday Tremble in the open-air concert hut.
And Christa Ludwig regularly ended her very last song evenings with his "I hate music, but I love to sing."
The Ludwig voice was initially classified as old.
It turned out to be a lyrically expandable mezzo, with a strong, sustaining middle register, a sure coloratura technique, a slightly bitter, yet warm, gently vibrating timbre, immediately recognizable, yet flexible and versatile.
Their pronunciation was exemplary, their art of characterization great, the glow of their empathy and controlled emotions subtle.
She never sang well-mannered, always directly, almost naturally - actually the greatest contradiction.
And even if a self-contained perfectionist like Christa Ludwig was missing, she talked about it and didn't hide weaknesses. She also played first violin as a mezzo, something her first husband, the Viennese baritone Walter Berry, and her second husband the French actor and director actor Paul-Emile Deiber (died 2011) had to experience every day, as did her son Wolfgang Always a silent wife and mother before strenuous performances.
It was only when she was retired in her bright, elegant and modern house in Klosterneuburg that Christa Ludwig felt really liberated.
Her existence, still as a beloved, sought-after public figure, she enjoyed to the full.
She was regularly in the audience at the Vienna State Opera premiere until the beginning of the Corona.
Most of the time she wore a light trouser suit so that she could be recognized from a distance and spoken to with pleasure.
In two books she spoke frankly about how she would have loved to be a prima donna.
But she was always so clever that she performed soprano roles, the height of which she would have fought for, like the "Fidelio" -Leonore sang briefly on stage in the exuberance of her wife's happiness, the dyer in a de-luxe production that went through the big opera houses the "woman without a shadow" a little longer.
"I never want to be a singer again"
Isolde, Brünnhilde, Ariadne and Elektra, however, with a heavy heart denied Christa Ludwig, immortalized key game moments in the studio - and extended the career, for which she was always very well paid in the most beautiful clothes, to five decades.
Christa Ludwig gave information about crises as one of the first singers to address the difficult transition years of menopause.
And when it was all over, when she herself had masterfully completed her grandiose resignation, which had been planned for years and in all important places, she said very clearly: "I never want to be a singer again!"
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Now that she had savored the burdens and hardships of this unique profession to the very last.
And finished.
Turned to something new.
Nonetheless, a wise key witness of her past epoch who was in demand, did not glorify, analyzed in her singing Rhenish dialect until the end, unimpressed and wise.
One who breathed today, liked to share her experiences and stories.
Finally about #MeToo and the inevitable cast couch, on which she never sank herself.
And so Christa Ludwig is fondly remembered as one who always demonstrated what it means to live as a legend.
Who was always sure of her Hofmannsthals: "You have to be light, with a light heart and light hands hold and take, hold and let!"
We have to give up Christa Ludwig easily now. Even if it is hard. Of course, their truly unsurpassable acoustic legacy now sounds all the more precious. Forever ... forever.