She made guest appearances in Frankfurt, Dresden, Zurich, London, Prague, and Budapest, and she created Pfitzner's Das Herz, in Munich in 1931, other notable operatic roles included Eva and Die Marschallin.
Simon has recorded several CDs for the Naxos label, and is slated to record the complete songs of Pfitzner and Korngold.
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He is especially interested in twentieth century music, and, as accompanist, he initiated and let a series of lieder recitals, featuring music by such composers as Schoenberg, Pfitzner, Korngold, Rihm, Hindemith, Bridge, Holst, Rebecca Clarke, Crumb and Argento.
Though overshadowed by the more famous conductors of his time, he nevertheless achieved many notable performances, especially of works by Mozart, Wagner, Strauss, Pfitzner.
Hans Pfitzner | Pfitzner | Pfitzner's |
Although he primarily sang roles from the Wagnerian repertoire, Schmedes was also an admired interpreter of Florestan in Beethoven's Fidelio and the title role of Pfitzner's Palestrina.
In the German repertoire he had roles in Pfitzner's Palestrina and Das Herz; Schultze's Schwarzer Peter; Eugen d'Albert's Tiefland, Goetze's Widerspenstigen Zähmung, Jokanaan in Richard Strauss's Salome, and others.
By 1975 the group had built up a repertoire of 120 works, including the complete Beethoven, Schubert, Cherubini and Bartók quartets, and works by Haydn, Mozart, Brahms, Hugo Wolf, Pfitzner, Verdi, Donizetti, Debussy, Smetana, Kodály, Janáček, Hindemith, Alban Berg, Gian Francesco Malipiero, Witold Lutosławski, Milko Kelemen, Wittinger and Horvath.