An die musik
Speech by Gerald Moore
adagietto
2005. 3. 16. 23:09
Please be seated.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm afraid I haven't acted tonight in the modest way which is traditional for the accompanist. In fact, from time to time, I've had to ask myself the question: 'Am I too loud?'
But you know, of course it's a moment of great pride for me that these three great singers should all appear on the same programme, on the same platform, at the same time. It's even a remarkable fact to find them all at the same time on the same continent as a matter of fact! But of course I feel deeply the honour they've done me because I know they came and appeared here tonight out of affection for me.
Now, there's a fourth person who has not appeared on the stage but who is very much a power behind the scenes. And this is a man with whom I've been associated for 40 years. He conceived the idea of this concert, he laboured mightily to organise it and he devised the programme. And, of course, I'm referring to Walter Legge.
And now I must thank you, because all through the concert we up here on the stage have felt goodwill welling up towards us. And it's goodwill which, I must say, I have experienced for you for many years. And I'm deeply grateful to you all for the indulgence you've always shown me.
But I have one more claim to make on your indulgence. It is this. There are hundreds and hundreds of people who will want to come backstage and see and greet Elisabeth, there are hundreds of people who will want to come and greet Victoria, there are hundreds of people who will want to come and greet Dietrich, there even may be a few people... I was going to say, there may be a few people who want to see the back of me!
But I must beg you, and I'm asked by the management and by the staff of this hall to beg you, not to come round to the artist's room, because if you did, these glorious singers who've been here this evening and have sung so marvellously and given us such enormous pleasure, they would be here till all hours of the night and, in fact, they would miss their last buses home.
So, on behalf of all those four people - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Victoria de los Angeles, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Walter Legge - I thank you from the very bottom of my heart for the wonderful evening you have given us, and I would like to say goodbye and express my thanks to you in this way...
"homage to gerald moore" album 中
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm afraid I haven't acted tonight in the modest way which is traditional for the accompanist. In fact, from time to time, I've had to ask myself the question: 'Am I too loud?'
But you know, of course it's a moment of great pride for me that these three great singers should all appear on the same programme, on the same platform, at the same time. It's even a remarkable fact to find them all at the same time on the same continent as a matter of fact! But of course I feel deeply the honour they've done me because I know they came and appeared here tonight out of affection for me.
Now, there's a fourth person who has not appeared on the stage but who is very much a power behind the scenes. And this is a man with whom I've been associated for 40 years. He conceived the idea of this concert, he laboured mightily to organise it and he devised the programme. And, of course, I'm referring to Walter Legge.
And now I must thank you, because all through the concert we up here on the stage have felt goodwill welling up towards us. And it's goodwill which, I must say, I have experienced for you for many years. And I'm deeply grateful to you all for the indulgence you've always shown me.
But I have one more claim to make on your indulgence. It is this. There are hundreds and hundreds of people who will want to come backstage and see and greet Elisabeth, there are hundreds of people who will want to come and greet Victoria, there are hundreds of people who will want to come and greet Dietrich, there even may be a few people... I was going to say, there may be a few people who want to see the back of me!
But I must beg you, and I'm asked by the management and by the staff of this hall to beg you, not to come round to the artist's room, because if you did, these glorious singers who've been here this evening and have sung so marvellously and given us such enormous pleasure, they would be here till all hours of the night and, in fact, they would miss their last buses home.
So, on behalf of all those four people - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Victoria de los Angeles, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Walter Legge - I thank you from the very bottom of my heart for the wonderful evening you have given us, and I would like to say goodbye and express my thanks to you in this way...
"homage to gerald moore" album 中