Search - List of Books by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
"What concerns me, is the general social tendency to enforce a level, above which nothing rises and stands out." -- Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (born 28 May 1925 in Berlin) is a retired German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous Lieder (art song) performers of the post-war period and "one of the supreme vocal artists of the 20th century". Fischer-Dieskau was ranked the second greatest singer of the century (after Jussi Björling) by Classic CD (United Kingdom) "Top Singers of the Century" Critics' Poll (June 1999). The French dubbed him "Le miracle Fischer-Dieskau" and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf called him "a born god who has it all." At his peak, he was greatly admired for his interpretive insights and exceptional control of his beautiful voice. Fischer-Dieskau has also performed and recorded a great many operatic roles. He is the most recorded baritone (and singer) of all time. He dominated both the opera and concert platform for over thirty years.
Recording an astonishing array of repertoire (spanning centuries) as musicologist Alan Blyth asserted, "No singer in our time, or probably any other has managed the range and versatility of repertory achieved by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Opera, Lieder and oratorio in German Italian or English came alike to him, yet he brought to each a precision and individuality that bespoke his perceptive insights into the idiom at hand." In addition, he recorded in French, Russian, Hebrew and Hungarian.
Although his vocal technique was highly accomplished, Fischer-Dieskau's voice was rather light, a lyric-chamber baritone with less-than-overwhelming power. Despite this, he performed and recorded many heavy heroic baritone and bass-baritone operatic roles such as Wotan, Hans Sachs, Amfortas, Iago, Macbeth, Scarpia, and Jokanaan.
"Admittedly, it is really our duty, as artists, to hold up a mirror to our own era; but, on the other hand, these works have lives of their own, and they're still alive today.""All music has to speak in some form or other.""And what unity is to be had, at a time when orchestras are dying out, and when opera houses are about to close their doors; what's going to come next - when nothing new in music, for the orchestra, is truly lasting: pieces are performed once, and then they're thrown away.""Anyone who draws attention to himself as an individual, is viewed with suspicion. We acquired this tendency, of course, from America, and we must resist it: levelling, and imitation of what others are already doing.""Brahms believed that there was no need to publish absolutely everything that Schubert ever wrote.""But the thing that will always occupy me the most is music.""But, on the other hand, if Schubert were alive today, he would find even richer fields to plow.""I came together with younger musicians and tried to pass on my own experiences. In the process, I always tried to maintain my curiosity and spontaneity.""If you only do little clusters - three or four songs by one, and another, and then yet another - you lose the opportunity to think your way into the composer's mind, since, after all, most of these pieces are quite brief.""In fact, the element of play has an important role in my life, and I think that should be the case in the life of every artist. Our life is occupied with playing, whether we play an instrument or a role.""In Romanticism, the main determinant is the mood, the atmosphere. And in that regard, you could also describe Schubert as a Romantic.""It is desirable that people make music on the breath, with the breath.""It's not all that different with the orchestra. There are orchestras that seem to be encased in dough, so that first you have to break through the normal routine, and clear out the openings.""Many, many composers have only found their way to a certain form, through familiarizing themselves with texts.""Particularly at around the age of 70 you reach a stage where you have to be very careful. If, at that point, you abandon the work you have been doing, there is a good chance that you will just collapse and drift.""Rather, I believe that it is very good, if, with the aid of his songs, we can be reminded, among other things, of the social conditions under which Schubert had to work.""The composition of a single melody is born out of a bit of text, perhaps the first line, but it can also be the entire strophe; it can even be the poem's overall form.""The future? Like unwritten books and unborn children, you don't talk about it.""Toward the end of his life, one can sense that he was no longer thinking his way into the minds of others, causing them to speak on his behalf, but that he was now speaking for himself.""Unfortunately, it happens all too seldom that you really disappear behind a work, that you are no longer audible as an interpreter.""When you go out onto the stage, all the preparation has to be forced into your subconscious. For the moment of the performance, we all have to return to a new level of unconsciousness. All the reflection and all the doubts have to be laid aside before you start.""Which is why, in my lieder concerts, I always strove, when possible, to sing only the works of a single composer, so that the audience could be gradually drawn into a particular creative genius' way of thinking, and could follow him.""With creative people, truly new horizons open up.""Within each individual young person you meet, you have the same fields to plow. The trick is just to wake thmem up, to sharpen their ears for what's already there in the music.""You can't do opera when already from the 10th row you can only see little dolls on the stage. In such an enormous space you can't put much faith in the personal presence of the individual singer, which is reflected in facial expressions, among other things."
Albert Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was born in Berlin to Albert, a school principal, and Dora, a teacher. He started singing as a child and began formal voice lessons at the age of 16. When he was drafted into the Wehrmacht during World War II, in 1943, Fischer-Dieskau had just completed his secondary school studies and one semester at the Berlin Conservatory. He was captured in Italy in 1945 and spent two years as an American prisoner of war. During that time, he sang Lieder in PoW camps to homesick German soldiers.
In 1947, he returned to Germany where he launched his professional career as a singer in Badenweiler, singing in Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem without any rehearsal. (He was a last-minute substitute for an indisposed singer.) He gave his first Lieder recital in Leipzig in the autumn of 1947 and followed it soon afterwards with a highly successful first concert at Berlin's Titania-Palast.
From early in his career he collaborated with famous lyric sopranos Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Irmgard Seefried, and the recording producer Walter Legge, issuing instantly-successful albums of lieder by Schubert and Hugo Wolf.
In the autumn of 1948, Fischer-Dieskau was engaged as principal lyric baritone at the Städtische Oper Berlin (Municipal Opera, West Berlin), making his debut as Posa in Verdi's Don Carlos under Ferenc Fricsay. This company, known after 1961 as the Deutsche Oper, would remain his artistic home until his retirement from the operatic stage, in 1978.
Subsequently, Fischer-Dieskau made guest appearances at the opera houses in Vienna and Munich. After 1949 he made concert tours in the Netherlands, Switzerland, France and Italy. In 1951, he made his Salzburg Festival concert debut with Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen under Wilhelm Furtwängler. That year, he also made his British debut, at the Royal Albert Hall in London during the Festival of Britain. In 1956, Fischer-Dieskau made his Boston performance debut for the Peabody Mason Concert series, and appeared again in 1958. He appeared in Frederick Delius's A Mass of Life, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham. He made regular opera appearances at the Bayreuth Festival between 1954 and 1961 and at the Salzburg Festival from 1956 until the early 1970s.
As an opera singer, Fischer-Dieskau performed mainly in Berlin and at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. He also made guest appearances at the Vienna State Opera, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London, at the Hamburg State Opera, in Japan, and at the King's Theatre in Edinburgh, during the Edinburgh Festival. His first tour in the United States took place in 1955, when he was 29, with his concert debut in Cincinnati on 15 April (J. S. Bach's Kreuzstab cantata ) and 16 April (Ein Deutsches Requiem). His American Lieder debut, singing Franz Schubert songs, took place in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on 19 April. His New York City debut occurred on 2 May at The Town Hall, where he sang Schubert's song cycle Winterreise without intermission. Both American recitals were accompanied by pianist Gerald Moore.
In 1951, Fischer-Dieskau made his first of many recordings of Lieder with Gerald Moore at the EMI Studios, London, including a complete Die schöne Müllerin, and they performed the work on January 31, 1952 at the Kingsway Hall, London in the Mysore Concerts of the Philharmonia Concert Society. They gave recitals together until Moore retired from public performance in 1967. They continued, however, to record together until 1972, in which year they completed their massive project of recording all of the Schubert lieder appropriate for the male voice. Gerald Moore retired completely in 1972, and died in 1987, aged 87. Their recordings of Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise are highly prized as examples of their artistic partnership.
Fischer-Dieskau also performed many works of contemporary music, including Benjamin Britten, Samuel Barber, Hans Werner Henze, Karl Amadeus Hartmann (who wrote his Gesangsszene for him), Ernst Krenek, Witold Lutos?awski, Siegfried Matthus, Winfried Zillig, Gottfried von Einem and Aribert Reimann. He participated in the 1975 premiere and 1993 recording of Gottfried von Einem's cantata An die Nachgeborenen, written in 1973 as a commission of the UN, both with Julia Hamari and the Wiener Symphoniker conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini.
Beyond his recordings of lieder and the German opera repertoire, Fischer-Dieskau also recorded performances in the Italian operatic field. His recordings of Verdi's Rigoletto (alongside Renata Scotto and Carlo Bergonzi) and Rodrigo in Verdi's Don Carlos, are probably the most respected of these ventures. Others, such as the title role in Verdi's Macbeth (with Elena Souliotis), Giorgio Germont in Verdi's La traviata, and Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca (with Birgit Nilsson), are not delivered by him with the same degree of effectiveness. They display his characteristic perceptiveness and intelligence but lack idiomatic Mediterranean vocal colour and temperament - perhaps, in short, seeming too Germanic. However, as with the operatic interpretations of Schwarzkopf and Maria Callas, Fisher-Dieskau's performances on disc always seem thought out and are often true to the score. As conductor Ferenc Fricsay put it, "I never dreamed I'd find an Italian baritone in Berlin." Fischer-Dieskau retired from opera in 1978, the year he recorded his final opera, Aribert Reimann's Lear that the composer had written at his suggestion.
To the end his musicianship and technique were flawless. As Greg Sandow of Opera News put it, "Overall, his technique is breath-taking; someone should build a monument to it." He retired from the concert hall as of New Year's Day, 1993, at 67, and dedicated himself to conducting, teaching (especially the interpretation of Lieder), painting and writing books. He has still performed as a recitator, reading for example the letters of Strauss to Hugo von Hofmannsthal, read by Gert Westphal, for the Rheingau Musik Festival in 1994. He is also an honorary member of the Robert Schumann Society.
As 'the world's greatest Lieder singer' (Time magazine), he regularly sold out concert halls all over the world until his retirement at the end of 1992. The precisely articulated accuracy of his performances, in which text and music were presented as equal partners, established standards that endure today. The current widespread interest in German Romantic art song is mainly due to his efforts. Perhaps most admired as a singer of Schubert Lieder, Fischer-Dieskau had, according to critic Joachim Kaiser, only one really serious competitor - himself, as over the decades he set new standards, explored new territories and expressed unanticipated feelings and emotions.
In 1949, Fischer-Dieskau married the cellist Irmgard Poppen. Together they had three sons: Mathias (stage designer), Martin (conductor), and Manuel (cellist). Irmgard died in 1963 of complications following childbirth. Afterwards, Fischer-Dieskau was married to the actress Ruth Leuwerik, from 1965 to 1967, and Christina Pugel-Schule, from 1968 to 1975. Since 1977 he has been married to the soprano Julia Varady.
Fischer Dieskau recorded mainly on the labels EMI, DG and Orfeo.
Bach, 75 Cantatas, with Karl Richter on the Polygram label
Bach, Jesus and bass parts in the Passions under a wide host of conductors, e.g. Herbert von Karajan, Otto Klemperer, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Karl Richter
Bartók, Bluebeard's Castle, with Ferenc Fricsay
Bartók, Bluebeard's Castle, with Wolfgang Sawallisch
Beethoven, Fidelio, with Fricsay
Beethoven, Fidelio, with Leonard Bernstein
Alban Berg, Wozzeck, with Karl Böhm
Alban Berg, Lulu, with Karl Böhm
Brahms, Ein Deutsches Requiem, with Rudolf Kempe
Brahms, Ein deutsches Requiem, with Otto Klemperer and the Philharmonia Orchestra on the Angel label
Brahms, Liebeslieder Walzer on the Deutsche Grammophon label
Brahms, Vier ernste Gesänge, lieder, with Jörg Demus, piano on the Deutsche Grammophon label
Britten, War Requiem, Benjamin Britten conducting, with Galina Vishnevskaya and Sir Peter Pears
Busoni, Doktor Faust, conductor Ferdinand Leitner
Cimarosa, The Secret Marriage, with Daniel Barenboim
Debussy, Mélodies, with Hartmut Höll, piano, recorded 1988 for Claves Records, available in 2006 on Brilliant Classics
Fauré, Requiem, Op. 48 under André Cluytens on EMI
Gluck, Orpheus ed Eurydice with Karl Richter
Gluck, Iphigenie in Aulis with Arthur Rother
Gluck, Iphigenie in Aulis with Kurt Eichhorn and Anna Moffo
Haydn, The Creation, with Herbert von Karajan
Henze, Elegie für junge Liebende, with Martha Mödl, the composer conducting
Paul Hindemith, Cardillac, with Josef Keilberth
Paul Hindemith, Mathis der Maler, with Rafael Kubelík
Paul Hindemith, When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd , with Wolfgang Sawallisch
Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde, with Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic
Mahler, Lieder, with Daniel Barenboim, piano, on the EMI label
Mahler, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Des Knaben Wunderhorn, with Daniel Barenboim, piano, on the Sony label
Mahler, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Kindertotenlieder with orchestra, with Wilhelm Furtwängler and Rudolf Kempe, on the EMI label
Mahler, Kindertotenlieder, with Karl Böhm
Mahler, Rückert-Lieder, on the Deutsche Grammophon label
Felix Mendelssohn, Lieder, with Hartmut Höll, piano, recorded 1989 and 1991 for Claves Records, available in 2006 on Brilliant Classics
Mozart and Haydn Discoveries, with Reinhard Peters and the Vienna Haydn Orchestra on the Decca label
Mozart, The Magic Flute with Ferenc Fricsay
Mozart, The Magic Flute, with Karl Böhm
Mozart, The Magic Flute, with Georg Solti (as the Sprecher)
Mozart, The Marriage of Figaro, with Karl Böhm
Mozart, The Marriage of Figaro, with Ferenc Fricsay
Mozart, Don Giovanni, with Ferenc Fricsay
Mozart, Don Giovanni, with Karl Böhm
Mozart, Così fan tutte, at least two different recordings are available, one starring Gundula Janowitz as Fiordiligi; the other starring Irmgard Seefried, both conducted by Karl Böhm.
Mozart, Requiem, with Daniel Barenboim
Orff, Carmina Burana, with Eugen Jochum and the Chor und Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin on the Deutsche Grammophon label
Puccini, Tosca, with Birgit Nilsson, as well as excerpts in German with Anja Silja, on Decca Records
Reger, Hebbel Requiem with the Philharmoniker Hamburg and Gerd Albrecht
Reimann, Lear, with the Bavarian State Orchestra on the Polygram label
Schoeck, Lebendig begraben, with Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, on the Deutsche Grammophon label
Schoeck, Notturno, five movements für voice and string quartet, on EMI Classics
Schoeck, Lieder, with Margrit Weber (piano) and Karl Engel (piano), on the Deutsche Grammophon label
Schubert, Deutsche Messe, with Wolfgang Sawallisch and the Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks on the Capitol label
Schubert, Winterreise, with Gerald Moore, piano, on the Deutsche Grammophon label
Schubert, Die Winterreise, with Jörg Demus, piano, on the Deutsche Grammophon label
Schubert, Die schöne Müllerin, with Gerald Moore, piano, on the Angel label
Schubert, Lieder, with Gerald Moore, piano on the Deutsche Grammophon label
Schubert, Missa Solemnis and Masses in C major and E flat major, with Wolfgang Sawallisch and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra on the EMI label
Schubert, Schwanengesang, with Gerald Moore, piano on the EMI label
Schubert, Lieder, with Hartmut Höll, piano, recorded 1987 for Claves Records, available in 2006 on Brilliant Classics
Schumann, Dichterliebe, Liederkreis, and others with Christoph Eschenbach, piano, on the Deutsche Grammophon label
Schumann, Liederkreis, with Gerald Moore, piano, on the EMI label
Shostakovich, Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti and Four Verses of Captain Lebyadkin, with Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin on the Polygram label
Shostakovich, Symphony No. 14 with Bernard Haitink and the Concertgebouw Orchestra on the Decca label
Richard Strauss, Elektra, with Karl Böhm
Strauss, Arabella, with Wolfgang Sawallisch
Strauss, Die Frau ohne Schatten, with Joseph Keilberth (Deutsche Grammophon; re-released on Brilliant Classics)
Strauss, Salome, with Karl Böhm
Strauss, Der Rosenkavalier, with Karl Böhm
Strauss, Ariadne auf Naxos, with Kurt Masur
Strauss, Capriccio, with Wolfgang Sawallisch
Johann Strauss, Die Fledermaus, with Willi Boskovsky
Verdi, Un ballo in maschera (in German), with Fritz Busch
Verdi, La traviata, with Lorin Maazel
Verdi, Otello
Verdi, Falstaff, with Leonard Bernstein
Verdi, Macbeth, with Elena Souliotis
Verdi, Rigoletto with Rafael Kubelík and the La Scala Orchestra on the Deutsche Grammophon label
Verdi, Don Carlos, in German, with Ferenc Fricsay and Josef Greindl, 1948 (his operatic debut)
Verdi, Don Carlos, in Italian, with Georg Solti
Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, as Hans Sachs, with Eugen Jochum and the Berliner Staatsopernorchester on the Deutsche Grammophon label
Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, as Fritz Kothner the baker, with Andre Clutyens, at Bayreuth, 1956
Wagner, Lohengrin with Rudolf Kempe (EMI), as Friedrich von Telramund
Wagner, Lohengrin, with Eugen Jochum (Conductor), Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, 1954, as the Heerrufer
Wagner, Lohengrin, with Georg Solti, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, as the Heerrufer (Decca)
Wagner, The Flying Dutchman, with Franz Konwitschny (EMI)
Wagner, Tannhäuser, with Franz Konwitschny (EMI)
Wagner, Das Rheingold, with Herbert von Karajan (DG)
Wagner, Götterdämmerung, with Georg Solti and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra on the Decca label
Wagner, Tristan und Isolde, with Wilhelm Furtwängler
Wagner, Tristan und Isolde, with Carlos Kleiber
Wagner, Parsifal, with Hans Knappertsbusch (live at Bayreuth, 1956, CD manufactured by Arkadia)
Wagner, Parsifal, in studio with Georg Solti
Weber, Lieder, with Hartmut Höll, piano, recorded 1991 for Claves Records, available in 2006 on Brilliant Classics
Wolf, Frühe Lieder, with Hartmut Höll, piano, recorded 1986 for Claves Records, available in 2006 on Brilliant Classics
Schubert, Winterreise, recorded July 1990, with Murray Perahia (piano), from Sony Classical.
Schubert, Winterreise, recorded January 1979, with Alfred Brendel (piano), Sender Freies Berlin (SFB), from TDK 2005.
Mozart, Don Giovanni, Deutsche Oper Berlin, with Ferenc Fricsay, live performance in German, recorded September 24, 1961. Cast includes Pilar Lorengar, Elisabeth Grümmer, Walter Berry, Erika Köth, Donald Grobe, and Josef Greindl.
Strauss (Richard), Mahler, and Schubert: "Schwarzkopf, Seefried, and Fischer-Dieskau", a DVD from EMI Classics. Includes Schwarzkopf playing the Marschallin and Fischer-Dieskau singing "Der Erlkönig".
Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Lorin Maazel, from the Salzburg Festival, 1963. A DVD from VAI.
As conductor
Hector Berlioz, Harold in Italy with violist Josef Suk and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra on the Supraphon label
Brahms, Symphony No. 4, with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra on the Supraphon label
Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde
Richard Strauss, Arias from Salome, Ariadne auf Naxos, Die Liebe der Danae, and Capriccio, with Julia Varady and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra on the Orfeo label
The Fischer-Dieskau Book of Lieder: The Original Texts of over 750 Songs, translated by Richard Stokes and George Bird. Random House, 1977. (ISBN 0-394-49435-0)
Reverberations: The Memoirs of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, translated by Ruth Hein. Fromm International, 1989. (ISBN 0-88064-137-1)
Robert Schumann Words and Music: The Vocal Compositions, translated by Reinhard G. Pauly. Hal Leonard, 1992. (ISBN 0-931340-06-3)
Schubert's Songs: A Biographical Study. Alfred A. Knopf, 1977. (ISBN 0-394-48048-1)
Wagner and Nietzsche, translated by Joachim Neugroschel. Continuum International, 1976.
Jupiter und ich: Begegnungen mit Furtwängler, Berlin University Press, 2009.
