ELSE BREMS - Naxos Music Library

Else Brems (1908-95).
Else Brems was bom into a family of musicians Peter
Rasmus.en. her matemal grand[at]rer. $ a\ an organist
and composer, Alfred Rasmussen, her uncle, was a
French-horn player in the orchestra of the Royal
Theatre, and her mother, Gerda Rasmussen, was a
trained pianist. Anders Brems, her father, came from a
Jutland family of musicians. He was originally a
clarinettist, but being gifted with a fine singing voice
he began training as a singer, and in l9l3 made his
d6but as a romance singer Anders Brems was an ardent
promoter of the music of his time, and with two other
singers he gave the lirst performance ofCarl Nielsen's
and Thomas Laub's Twenty Danish Bqllads. He
appeared fiequently at orchestral concerts taking such
parts as that of Hr. OIuf in Zhe Ef-Shot by Niels W
Gade. He made a series ofrecordings, and together with
Ellen Beck and Saima Neovi he fomed a folk song
trio touring Denmrk and the other Nordic countries
He became a highly respected singing teacher. Else's
younger brother Mogens became a famous ballad
singer, and his twin, Erik, a clarinettist. Else Brems's
first singing teacher was her father, and her mother was
her accompanist. When she was seventeen Else made
up her mind to become a singer, and her lather brought
her to Italy where she was allowed to sing to Mattia
Battistini, the world-famous baritone singer who lived
in retirement outside Rome. Sr. Battistini was
enthusiastic in his praise of the girl's obvious talent,
and thus encouraged, Anders Brems started planning
his daughter's first public performance. Else was sent
to Pris for a tbur months' stay to study the French
repertory of songs with Georges Cunelli; and it was
here that her lilelong love affair with French music
stafied. Twenty yems old, on the third of December
1928 she made her d6but in the small concert hall of
the Odd Fellow Pale in Copenhagen.Axel Kierulff, the
music critic, wrote after the concert that, despite the
fact that she was the daughter of a well-klown musicim,
"Else Brems conquered solely by her own effort, her
fine, melodious voice, and her unering musicality".
The general opinion among the critics was that she was
eminently qualified for the opera, and in preparation
for an audition at The Royal Theatre, she went to Berlin
to study with Madame Charles Cahier, the famous
interpreter of Carmen, and later again to Paris to sing
with M. Cunelli. and to work u ith Ceorge wague lrom
the Pris Opera on the acting technique of Camen
At 21, Else Brems made her first appearance at The
Royal Theatre taking the title part in Bizet's opera. She
scored a great success despite the lact that the staging
was somewhat stale md dusty. Later that year the opera
was put on again in a new version, directed by Johannes
Poulsen and conducted by Leo Blech. This became
the start of her triumphal progress as Carmen. During
the following years she sang the parl more than a hundred
times in Copenhagen. In 1938 in Vienna she sang
the part in Geman, followed by perfomances in French
in Warsaw, Budapest, and Stockholm, and in English
in London. With few short breaks, she was contracted
to The Royal Theatre from her d6but in 1 930 until 1962
In 1933 when Else Brens was on a private visit to the
USA she was given the opportunity to sing with the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, arias by Gluck, Saint
Saens, and Bizet. Her performance was reviewed with
enthusiasm. The Ciicapo Musical Courierwote, "Miss
Brems has all the qualities to be a favorite inAmerica";
inthe Chicago Tribane she was compued to the young
Emestine Schumann-Heink, and, said the reviewer,
"she has a voice that chams the er with its superb
quality and its effortless power". Herman Devries, in
the Chicago American said that "she will be the world's
greatest Carmen". Despite her successes she was not