Elisabeth Soderstrom in L.A.

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Elisabeth Soderstrom, the Swedish soprano who died Friday, was not a frequent visitor to Los Angeles. According to stories in The Times, she made her local debut in 1986.

‘For me it is more important to communicate than to sing a pretty note,’ she told The Times’ Daniel Cariaga in a Feb. 19, 1988 story leading up to two local performances with Andre Previn, then music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. ‘This is one of the things I try to tell the young singers who attend my master classes. Try every experience, I tell them.… What you learn is never wasted — all knowledge is intertwined.’

As for the 1988 performances, The Times’ Martin Bernheimer called her ‘still one of the great singing actresses of our day’ after watching her as a soloist with the Philharmonic at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. ‘The tone is still fresh and the intelligence that motivates and shades her phrasing remains a source of wonder.’

Six days later, she teamed with Previn at the piano for a more intimate recital. Bernheimer again praised Soderstrom but thought the Pavilion was ‘much too big a showcase for her essentially fragile art.’

--Keith Thursby