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Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

[fish-er-dee-skou; Ger. fish-uhr-dees-kou]

The German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (born 28 May 1925) is a German singer and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous lieder (art songs) singers of his generation. He is greatly admired for his interpretations, the tonal qualities and shadings of color in his voice, his exceptional rhythmic sense and his impeccable diction. Fischer-Dieskau has also performed and recorded many operatic roles.

Early years

Albert Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was born in Berlin to Albert, a principal, and Dora, a teacher. He started singing as a child and began formal voice lessons at the age of sixteen. When he was drafted into the Wehrmacht 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 the homesick German soldiers.

Singing career

In 1947, he returned to Germany where he launched his professional career as a singer in Badenweiler when he sang in Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem without any rehearsal—he was a last-minute substitute for a singer who was indisposed. He gave his first lieder recital in Leipzig in the fall of 1947 and followed it soon afterwards with a highly successful first concert at Berlin's Titania-Palast.

In the fall of 1948, Fischer-Dieskau was engaged as principal lyric baritone at the Berlin State Opera, making his debut as Posa in Verdi's Don Carlos under Ferenc Fricsay. Subsequently, Fischer-Dieskau made guest appearances at the opera houses in Vienna and Munich. After 1949 he made concert tours in England, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France and Italy. In 1951, he made his Salzburg Festival concert debut with Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer) under Wilhelm Furtwängler. 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 at 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, Ohio on 15 April (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 Gerald Moore.

In 1951, Fischer-Dieskau made his first recordings of lieder with Gerald Moore, at EMI Studios, London; they performed and recorded frequently until the latter's retirement in 1967 and were renowned above all for their performances of Schubert. Their recordings of Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise are highly prized.

Fischer-Dieskau also performed many works of contemporary music, including Benjamin Britten, Samuel Barber, Hans Werner Henze, Ernst Krenek, Witold Lutosławski, Siegfried Matthus, Winfried Zillig, Gottfried von Einem and Aribert Reimann.

Beyond his recordings of lieder and German repertoire, Fischer-Dieskau also recorded interesting performances in the Italian operatic repertoire. His recordings as Rigoletto alongside Renata Scotto and Carlo Bergonzi and also Rodrigo in Verdi's Don Carlos are probably the most respected of these ventures. Both these recordings, made right at the peak of his career, are very fine indeed (comparable to performances of the quality shown by Tito Gobbi or Giuseppe Taddei at their peak ). Other roles such as the title role in Verdi’s Macbeth alongside Elena Souliotis, Giorgio Germont in La traviata, and Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca with Birgit Nilsson, and are not often as successful, showing insight and inventiveness but lacking somewhat in idiomatic Mediterranean vocal colour or temperament - perhaps seeming too Germanic. However, as with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Maria Callas, Fisher-Dieskau's performances always seem thought out and are often true to the score.

Fischer-Dieskau retired from the concert hall in 1992 and dedicated himself to conducting, teaching (especially lieder), painting, writing books, etc.

In a 1999 "Top Singers of the Century" critics' poll compiled by British Classic CD magazine, Fischer-Dieskau came second, behind Jussi Björling.

He is an honorary member of the Robert Schumann Society.

Personal life

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.

Partial discography

As singer

Fischer Dieskau recorded mainly on the labels EMI, DG and ORFEO.

Johann Sebastian Bach, 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
Béla Bartók, Bluebeard's Castle, with Ferenc Fricsay
Bartók, Bluebeard's Castle, with Wolfgang Sawallisch
Ludwig van Beethoven, Fidelio, with Fricsay
Beethoven, Fidelio, with Leonard Bernstein
Johannes 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
Benjamin Britten, War Requiem, Benjamin Britten conducting, with Galina Vishnevskaya and Sir Peter Pears
Ferruccio Busoni, Doktor Faust, conductor Ferdinand Leitner
Domenico Cimarosa, The Secret Marriage, with Daniel Barenboim
Claude Debussy, Mélodies, with Hartmut Holl, piano, recorded 1988 for Claves Records, available in 2006 on Brilliant Classics
Gabriel Fauré, Requiem, Op. 48 under André Cluytens on EMI
Joseph Haydn, The Creation, with Herbert von Karajan
Gustav Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde, with Leonard Bernstein and the New York 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 Furtwangler and Rudolf Kempe, on the EMI label
Mahler, Kindertotenlieder, with Karl Bohm
Mahler, Rückert Lieder, on the Deutsche Grammophon label
Felix Mendelssohn, Lieder, with Harmut Holl, 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 Bohm
Mozart, ''The Marriage of Figaro", with Karl Bohm

Mozart, [[Don Giovanni, with Ferenc Fricsay
Mozart, Don Giovanni, with Karl Bohm
Carl Orff, Carmina Burana, with Eugen Jochum and the Chor und Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin on the Deutsche Grammophon label
Giacomo Puccini, Tosca, with Birgit Nilsson, and excerpts in German with Anja Silja, on Decca Records
Aribert Reimann, Lear, with the Bavarian State Orchestra on the Polygram label
Othmar Schoeck, Lebendig begraben, with Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, on the Deutsche Grammophon label
Othmar Schoeck, Notturno, five movements für voice and string quartet, on EMI Classics
Othmar Schoeck, Lieder, with Margrit Weber (piano) and Karl Engel (piano), on the Deutsche Grammophon label
Franz Schubert, Deutsche Messe, with Wolfgang Sawallisch and the Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks on the Capitol label
Schubert, Die 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 Harmut Holl, piano, recorded 1987 for Claves Records, available in 2006 on Brilliant Classics
Robert Schumann, Dichterliebe, Liederkreis, and others with Christoph Eschenbach, piano, on the Deutsche Grammophon label
Schumann, Liederkreis, with Gerald Moore, piano, on the EMI label
Dmitri 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 Bohm
Strauss, Arabella, with Joseph Keilberth
Strauss, "Arabella", with J. Keilberth
Strauss, Die Frau ohne Schatten
Giuseppe Verdi, Un ballo in maschera (in German language), with Fritz Busch
Verdi, La traviata, with Lorin Maazel
Verdi, Otello
Verdi, Falstaff, with Leonard Bernstein
Verdi, Macbeth (Verdi)|Macbeth]], with Elena Souliotis
Verdi, Rigoletto with Rafael Kubelík and the La Scala Orchestra on the Deutsche Grammophon label
Richard Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, with Eugen Jochum and the Berliner Staatsopernorchester on the Deutsche Grammophon label
Wagner, Lohengrin with Rudolf Kempe (EMI)
Wagner, The Flying Dutchman, with Franz Konwitschny (EMI)
Wagner, Tannhaeuser, with Konwitschny (EMI)
Wagner, Das Rheingold, with Herbert von Karajan (DG)
Wagner, Gotterdammerung, with Georg Solti and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra on the Decca label
Wagner, Tristan und Isolde, with Wilhelm Furtwangler
Wagner, Tristan und Isolde, with Carlos Kleiber
Carl Maria von Weber, Lieder, with Harmut Holl, piano, recorded 1991 for Claves Records, available in 2006 on Brilliant Classics
Hugo Wolf, Fruhe Lieder, with Harmut Holl, piano, recorded 1986 for Claves Records, available in 2006 on Brilliant Classics

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 Salomé, Ariadne auf Naxos, Die Liebe der Danae, and Capriccio, with Julia Varady and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra on the Orfeo label

Books

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.