;i1r,,*-==::xr - Chandos

Gerd Schiotz:
"The Gramophone Find"
Dear girl. 17. jan. 1938
If this letter sounds silly and without head or tail,
Ieam the reason for my silliness. Telcphone call
from Haftkopp. head of Skandinavisk Grammofon
(Danish EMI). He said, "Take hold of yourself,
SchiOtz. Yesterday I was told by our London Office
to find the singer AS, supposed to be rn
Copenhagen. They ask you to make some test
records, a concert aria by Mozart (to appear in vol.
4. Ed.) and an aria from "Die Entfiihrung", paid 1br
by the London Olfice, and without obligation on
either side." Hartkopp was quite dumbfounded, he
did not know anything about me. And that is our
chance now.
Then he asked me to record a couple of Danish
songs for the domestic company. It is aggrevating
you have been iced in at Atrhus, You'11 have to
come here, I need your common sense with me.
Ah! So this was the solution! At lastl And it was
"His Master's Voice" in London which called! But
how could that be? Aksel had hardly made a name
for himself in Denmark. We had to guess. Perhaps
somebody at Hayes had heard Aksel sing the very
difficult "Frohe Hirten" over the radio where it had
been broadcast during Christmas.
British HMV later asked for a recording of the
Messiah aria "Every Valley", and an English
producer and a crew had mived to make the
recording. Mogens Wiildike conducted the
orchestra of which Else Mrie Bruun was the
leader. The Englishman disagreed with Wijldike as
A,
to conception and tempo. A good deal of argument
and running to and fro ensued. Aksel was unhappy,
his voice was unnecessarily taxed by the many
repetitions, the musicians got iritated and Woldike
angry. Finally somebody lost his head, and the
leader and Aksel had it in for each other:
"Primadonna" both of them hissed, and red-faced
they had to be called to order by Wcildike, after
which everybody started anew for the tenth time. In
the control room the Englishman delightedly
tumed to me, "Listen! This is hne!" And indeed,
the excitement had opened up for something, they
played and sang and conducted as I do not-knowwhat,
and the result was a record which is still
considered something special.
The Bach/Buxtehude record comes from the
same sessions.
Aksel Schiotz on Wiildike:
During my professional life, when I had to make
some important decision, it was often after
consulting a certain man Mogens Wcildike. I shall
not try to evaluate him as a musician and artist.
This is only to stress how important he has been for
me.
I had prepared Buxtehude's Magnificat with
pupils of Roskilde Katedralskole. So wasn't I
proud when Wdldike, after a concert where I had
been a soloist, introduced me thus: 'A young music
teacher who sings five-part Buxtehude with his
pupils I"
Because he knew my dilemma, teacher or
tenor, from inside out - he agreed that I could not
stay a teacher and a singer at the same time - his
advice was decisive.
When the final decision had been made he
gave me lot to do. Aheady as a chorister I had been