Ilse Wolf

Soprano Ilse Wolf (1921-1999)

Student of Helene Isepp.
Assistant teacher of Janet Baker.
Highly respected Lieder teacher and recitalist.
Honorary member of the Royal Academy.
First and three-time singer of Lieder at the Proms.
Worked with Michael Tippett and Colin Davis.
Well-known for her many recitals at the Wigmore Hall, on the Third Programme - now Radio 3 - and throughout the U.K.

Guardian obituary

Times obituary

Royal College of Music obituary

Personal introduction by Peter Wilberg

The soprano Ilse Wolf was one the oldest friends of my late mother, Liselotte Wilberg. Ilse was a notable figure in the German and Austrian emigre community that had such a huge and profound influence on British musical culture and singing (see the interviews on this page with Dame Janet Baker and Laura Sarti).

My parents, also emigres from Germany, quite literally found her in the gutter, where she had tripped when coming out of an evening at 'The Free German League of Culture' in Belsize Park during a blackout in London. In 1953 they provided her with lodgings in the largest of the upstairs rooms in their house - one big enough to house a grand piano and serve as a teaching studio.

Much time was spent in my early infancy (I was born in 1952) in Ilse's room (often directly under her piano and in the company of her Persian-grey cat called Figaro) whilst Ilse conducted her singing lessons. When I was a little older she gifted me with a large set of classical musical LP's - something for which I remain forever grateful. Of course she also seeded me with what became a love of Lieder which has never diminished. My mother and I attended many of her recitals at the Wigmore Hall. And after she moved out of our house she remained a frequent visitor.

I recall also visits to her flat and the many stray cats she kept and cared for there. One incident that has stuck in my mind, although I was still too young to understand it at the time - occurred when I noticed a signed photograph of Gustav Mahler on her desk and asked her a question about composers. With instant and fierce authority she told me in no uncertain terms that for a musician the great composers were not to be talked about in merely human terms - for her they were gods.

Ilse's lifelong devotion to the absolute perfection her art was a model for all her students. But I will always remember the great warmth, spontaneity and vivacity - and the long friendship she enjoyed with my mother. And of my nicest childhood memories is of them both taking me, along with a very young Colin Davis, at that time not yet a conductor, on a holiday to Majorca.

I have for some years, also been in possession of the one and only LP that was made of Ilse singing a variety of Lieder with Martin Isepp. Having been long dismayed that this single Unicorn recording was no longer in circulation, I took steps to get the LP restored to the best possible extent - in order that others might still have an opportunity to hear Ilse's voice.

If you are interesting in reissuing Ilse's recording, please contact me at the address below:

pwilberg76@gmail.com

Ilse Wolf

Ilse Wolf with Martin Isepp

Personal introduction by Peter Wilberg