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. The unknown Kathleen won the prestigious Gold Cup at the Workington Music Festival of 1938.[2] 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,[3] moved to London in 1942, where her main career began. She later divorced her husband on the grounds of his inability to consummate the marriage.[4]

[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.[1]

[edit] Achievements

Ferrier excelled in the music of Mahler, of Bach and of Handel. Her recitals often included songs by Schubert, Schumann and Brahms, and towards the end of her career she sang Chausson's Poème de l'amour et de la mer – her only major work from the French repertory. However, she 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 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. 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 sang Christoph Willibald 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 1977, searched for and produced by recording producer and technician Klaas A. Posthuma.

[edit] Final role and death

Her final role was in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice at Covent Garden in February 1953. This performance was sung in English. 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 her left thighbone partly disintegrated and a chip caused her great pain. Despite this, she finished the performance (without moving around), and the audience did not realise that anything unusual had happened. She had to leave the theatre on a stretcher. It was her final performance; she died on 8 October 1953, aged 41.[3]

[edit] The Kathleen Ferrier Awards

Main article: Kathleen Ferrier Award

The Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Scholarship Fund was founded in 1953 following an appeal launched by Sir John Barbirolli, Roy Henderson, Gerald Moore, Sir Malcolm Sargent and Hamish Hamilton.[5] It was seeded with the proceeds from the book Kathleen Ferrier – a Memoir compiled by friends and colleagues. The fund provides an award sufficient to cover a year's study and general support, for singers aged under 29, and has been awarded since 1953.

[edit] Popular recitals
Have mercy, Lord on me
From St. Matthew Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach. With National Symphony Orchestra of London conducted by Malcolm Sargent. Recorded at Kingsway Hall, London, 6 February 1946.
What is life to me without thee?
From Orfeo ed Euridice by Christoph Willibald Gluck. With London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Sargent. Recorded at Kingsway Hall, London, 27 February 1946.
Problems listening to these files? See media help.

Works for which she was particularly well known include:

Ferrier performed some of these pieces in both their original language and 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] 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, an essay 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. ^ a b Rupert Christiansen, "The glory of 'Klever Kaff'". Telegraph, 8 September 2003.
  2. ^ Byers Richard (2003), The History of Workington, An Illustrated History from 1866 to 1955, Volume 2, Richard Byers Pub. Cockermouth, Page 217
  3. ^ a b Everything you need to know about Kathleen Ferrier, BBC. URL last accessed on April 4, 2006.
  4. ^ [ http://www.granta.com/Magazine/76 "Klever Kaff", Ian Jack, Granta 76: Music]
  5. ^ Ferrier Memorial Fund history

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Ferrier"