Sophie Wyss | |
|---|---|
 Wyss c. 1920s | |
| Background information | |
| Born | (1897-07-05)5 July 1897 La Neuveville,Bern, Switzerland |
| Died | 25 December 1983(1983-12-25) (aged 86) Bognor Regis, UK |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Instrument | Singer |
| Labels | Decca |
Spouse | |
Sophie Adele Wyss (5 July 1897[1] – 25 December 1983[2]) was a Swisssoprano who made her career as a concert singer and broadcaster in the UK. She was noted for her performances of French works, many of them new to Britain, for giving the world premieres ofBenjamin Britten's orchestral song cyclesOur Hunting Fathers (1936) andLes Illuminations (1940), and for encouraging other composers to set English and French texts. Among those who wrote for her wereLennox Berkeley,Arnold Cooke,Roberto Gerhard,Elizabeth Maconchy,Peter Racine Fricker,Alan Rawsthorne andMátyás Seiber.
Wyss was born to a musical family inLa Neuveville,Canton of Bern, Switzerland.[3] Her two sisters, Emilie Perret-Wyss and Colette Feschotte-Wyss, were also singers, and the three sometimes performed together.[4] She studied at theGeneva Conservatoire and theBasle Music Academy. In 1925 she married a British army officer, Captain Arnold Gyde, who had retired from the armed forces and become a publisher in London.[3] He also became the treasurer of theCommittee for the Promotion of New Music,[4] founded in 1943.[5]
Making her home in England, Wyss embarked on a career as a soloist.[3] At first she failed to impress the critics. After an early recital in London in 1927,The Times said, "Miss Wyss has some pleasant notes in her voice, but the tone was tight in the upper range. A pronounced wobble, which appeared now and then, and a tendency to go out of tune showed that she has not yet gained sufficient control over her voice."[6] By the 1930s her notices had improved from reserved to enthusiastic.The Times said that Wyss "possesses a soprano voice of an exquisitely yielding quality ... a singer so completely satisfying that we would not trust ourselves to say how much of the pleasure we derived from her performances was due to her or the music itself."[7]
In 1936, together withAdolph Hallis,Benjamin Britten,Alan Rawsthorne andChristian Darnton, Wyss was a founder of the Hallis Concert Society, which gave a number of innovative concerts in London in the period 1936–1939. These included British premieres of both contemporary and historical British and European music, including works ofGiovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina,François Couperin,Alban Berg,Paul Hindemith,Elisabeth Lutyens andElizabeth Maconchy.[8]
Wyss encouraged British composers to set French texts for her to perform.[3] The most famous work that resulted from this was Britten'sLes Illuminations to words byRimbaud, which Wyss premiered in London in 1940 withBoyd Neel and his orchestra.[9][n 1] Wyss was equally at home with English texts, such as those in Britten'sOur Hunting Fathers (1936)[3] andOn This Island (1937).[13] Britten dedicated Vol. 2 of his Folk Song Arrangements (1942) to Wyss and Gyde's two sons, Arnold and Humphrey.[14] Britten was also Humphrey's godfather.[15][n 2] She gave the first performance of his 8 French Folksongs, in a 1942 National Gallery recital withGerald Moore, and she and Britten later recorded five of these songs.[17] However, by 1942, Britten's knowledge of voice and vocal technique had greatly increased, and he preferredPeter Pears's interpretation ofLes Illuminations to Wyss's performance, which he described to a close friend as "hopelessly inefficient, subjective & (of all things) so coy & whimsey!!!"[18] Though Wyss was keen to resume her professional relationship with Britten, he was no longer interested but confessed to Pears that he was "too fond of her to be rude, & not interested enough to be critical".[19][n 3]
As a near neighbour ofGerald Finzi's, from 1941 Wyss performed in several of his concerts involving theNewbury String Players, singing the Aria from Finzi'sDies Natalis as well as works byWilliam Byrd,Henry Purcell,George Frideric Handel,Ivor Gurney, andRalph Vaughan Williams.[21] Wyss gave many first performances of works in French or English by composers includingLennox Berkeley,[22]Arnold Cooke,Roberto Gerhard,Elizabeth Maconchy,Peter Racine Fricker,Alan Rawsthorne,George Enescu,Antony Hopkins[23] andMátyás Seiber.[3][4] She was also a leading exponent in the UK of songs byGabriel Fauré,Claude Debussy,Reynaldo Hahn,Maurice Ravel and other French composers.[4] During a career that lasted until the early 1960s Wyss broadcast extensively for theBBC, and made concert tours in continental Europe and Australia.[3] She died inBognor Regis on the south coast of England at the age of 86. In an obituary notice,The Times concluded, "Her contribution to British musical life was something special and will be hard to replace".[3]
Wyss recorded forDecca Records from 1941 to 1946. The works she sang included some by English composers:Bliss's "The Hare" and "The Buckle" from hisThree Romantic Songs; Britten's setsTwo French Folk Songs andThree French Folk Songs, andRawsthorne'sThree French Nursery Songs. From the French repertoire she recordedChabrier's "Villanelle des petits canards" and "Les cigales";Debussy's "L'échelonnement des haies";Duparc's "Chanson triste";Fauré'sLa bonne chanson, "Aurore" (Op. 39/1), "Les roses d'Ispahan" (Op. 39/4) and "Les berceaux" (Op. 23/1); andRavel's "Nicolette". Her accompanists included Britten andKathleen Long.[24] In 2012 Symposium Records released recordings made by Wyss in the 1950s. They were:Louis Durey'sImages à Crusoé;George Enescu'sSept chansons de Clément Marot;Arthur Honegger'sSix poésies de Jean Cocteau;Frank Martin'sTrois Chants de Noël; andJules Massenet'sPoème d'Avril.[4]
Notes
References
'Gyde'. On Dec 25th, 1983 peacefully at Bognor Regis aged 86, Sophie Adele Gyde (née Sophie Wyss), widow of Captain Arnold Gynde[sic] and mother of Arnold and Humphrey.
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