Frederica von Stade is one of the greatest singers of our time, and a delightful woman — and a splendid interviewee. I have recorded a podcast with her, a Q&A, here. Speaking of music: My latest Music for a While is here. It is headed “Musical Moments.” That’s because the podcast includes several moments musicaux, a genre for piano. Schubert wrote them. Rachmaninoff wrote them. Now an American composer, Joshua Nichols, has written them. I end this podcast with a remembrance of André Watts, the American pianist, who passed away some days ago. In 1987, he appeared on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. I play a clip.
To almost everyone, Frederica von Stade is known as “Flicka.” She has had that nickname since childhood. She is an American mezzo-soprano, who has sung all over the world — in a great variety of repertoire. In our Q&A, we talk about her life, of course, and her voice, and her craft, and whatever else occurs to us. She even gives us a little singing, a little demonstrating. For example, we hear a bar or two from “Das himmlische Leben” (“The Heavenly Life”), from Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. And if you would like to hear her sing it with Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic, in a recording made in 1978, go here. Heavenly indeed.
What a joy, to sit with Flicka and listen to her.