R.I.P Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

[Lisztianwagner]

I've just read the news, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau passed away today....
That's really terrible, he was one of the greatest singers of the 20th century, an amazing wagnerian interpreter and also a fine conductor.

R.I.P

[Florestan]

Sad news indeed.

RIP.

[Marc]

 

http://www.tagesspiegel.de/kultur/kurz-vor-87-geburtstag-saenger-dietrich-fischer-dieskau-gestorben/6647966.html

http://musicaltoronto.org/2012/05/18/obituary-the-great-baritone-dietrich-fischer-dieskau-dead-at-86/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Fischer-Dieskau

[KeithW]

Just saw the announcement on the BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18118722

Very sad.

[Karl Henning]

He enjoyed a long life (and he was a prisoner of war for a time!  So, long-lived notwithstanding . . . I guess we treated our prisoners of war humanely in those days), had a marvelous and productive career, and gave the world a wealth of magnificent recordings to document both his talent and much music, some of it we may have practically only in his voice. Flights of angels sing him to his rest!

[Mirror Image]

You've served the musical world greatly with your gifts and we are all forever grateful for your dedication to this music. May you rest in peace.

[kaergaard]

http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15958380,00.html

I shall listen to his Winterreise, thanking him for all the beauty he gave us.

[Chosen Barley]

I read on wikipedia that D.F.D. was "the most recorded singer of all time."  That is incredible.  I thought it was Donna Summer or Elvis or someone.

Karl, regarding your belief that "we" treated our prisoners of war more humanely in those days."  Please look further into this topic and you may find that there is some disagreement as to our humane-ness.   Let me just say that if Fischer Dieskau had been captured in Germany in 1945,  that might have been the end of any of his singing.  I am not wanting to start a debate about Allied crimes during and after the war, only to say that there is some controversy that bears looking into.  Thank you.

Anyway, it is hard to believe he is gone. Seems like he was always there.

[kishnevi]

Inevitable but sad....
It probably is a good indication of his stature that we've got three different 'in memoriam DFD' threads going.  Some musicians don't even rate one!

[Marc]

Inevitable but sad....
It probably is a good indication of his stature that we've got three different 'in memoriam DFD' threads going.  Some musicians don't even rate one!

And even one in 'The Diner' (discuss anything, music excepted ).
Well, I did a search beforehand, but did not find another thread. Apparenty, even the 'machine' did not consider dinner, either.

Apart from that: Dietrich deserves the attention!
As a salute, I listened this afternoon to his 'Nunc dimittis': Ich habe genug; Bach, BWV 82, Fischer-Dieskau, Rilling et al.

[Lisztianwagner]

R.I.P. Maestro....
I've always enjoyed his wagnerian interpretations, especially his Ring Cycle with Herbert von Karajan.

[classicalgeek]

I've loaded up some of his Schubert, Schumann, Strauss, and Mahler for a listen today.

His range, versatility, and sheer number of recordings are equaled by few, if any.  He will surely be missed.

[bhodges]

Very sad news. Although his Schubert is superb (not to mention any number of other things), I also enjoy this recording of Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle. (I have it with a different cover, below.)

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--Bruce

[Superhorn]

  Dietrich Fischer -Dieskau was a true Meistersinger .  He was an amazingly versatile singer who could sing everything from Bach and Mozart,
Schubert,Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, the operas of Wagner,Richard Strauss, Berg, Hindemith , Verdi, etc to the music of Britten, Shostakovich and even Charles Ives !   
    Not to mention a conductor, scholar ,author and a great teacher .  Thanks to his enormous recorded legacy, he will go down in history as one of the greatest singers of all time .  RIP.

[Coopmv]

He surely had a wonderful voice.  RIP.

[knight66]

I am listening to some of his Schubert now, then some Bach. I especially enjoyed his young voice.

Mike

[zamyrabyrd]

It's difficult to bring up the subject of Lieder, or anything sung in German for that matter, without Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau being the standard by which other performers are judged, like him or not. To avoid being prolific in praise, I agree with everything said about him so far on this thread. 

As a student, I had a chance to see and hear him in concert in 1971, which was for me an introduction to Lieder that I knew hardly anything about. In the ensuing years, his name was present in so many other educational instances that had to with art song, opera, cantatas and practically anything vocal, that
his recordings served as a virtual teacher. Later on, his own masterclasses were full of invaluable insights that showed him to be a person who really knew what he was doing and could communicate it to others.

There is a recent syndicated article about him that is interesting for what is said and what is not.

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/index.ssf/story/dietrich-fischer-dieskau-master-singer-of-german-art/a8a33268ab2dc2425a7dab88e7408ed5

I was particularly struck by: "After the Nazis came to power, his older brother Martin, physically and mentally disabled, was removed to an institution, where he died."

According to the article, he named one of his sons, Martin.

This is an astonishing piece of honesty, as he probably really believed it:
"I achieved too much," he told the British journalist Norman Lebrecht in an interview in 2007 . "I left too little for my successors."

[Jaakko Keskinen]

One of my favorite Wagner singers of all time! R.I.P.

[Xenophanes]

I have never warmed up to DFD that much.  I admire his technique and what he could do with his voice in Bach Cantatas, not to mention his breath control, but I prefer John Shirley-Quirk in "Ich will den kreuzstab gerne tragen" and "Ich habe genug."  I don't have all that many recordings of his. 

Someone mentioned Wagner, and so I looked Wotan's Farewell up on YouTube. I do admire that he has managed to wrap his voice around it, mostly,  and he does it pretty well. However, I also think he was miscast to some degree.  But anyone can listen and make their own judgments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CLzk5R6reA

On the other hand, here is one of George London's recordings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B24qmkKfK7w

Or an impressihttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yZ2Kxb5aT8e older recording by Alexander Kipnis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yZ2Kxb5aT8

[kishnevi]

I have never warmed up to DFD that much.  I admire his technique and what he could do with his voice in Bach Cantatas, not to mention his breath control, but I prefer John Shirley-Quirk in "Ich will den kreuzstab gerne tragen" and "Ich habe genug."  I don't have all that many recordings of his. 

Someone mentioned Wagner, and so I looked Wotan's Farewell up on YouTube. I do admire that he has managed to wrap his voice around it, mostly,  and he does it pretty well. However, I also think he was miscast to some degree.  But anyone can listen and make their own judgments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CLzk5R6reA

On the other hand, here is one of George London's recordings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B24qmkKfK7w

Or an impressihttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yZ2Kxb5aT8e older recording by Alexander Kipnis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yZ2Kxb5aT8

"never warmed up" is a nice phrase to use in this context, because it sounds like you fall into the camp of those people who think he was too precise, too much in control, too well thought out beforehand,  and not spontaneous enough--that he was, in short,  too cool and rational a singer, and that these traits became more and more characteristic as time went on.  So you might try some of his earlier recordings and see if you have the same reaction to those.

I've not heard his Wotan (and my computer/ISP connection is old enough that I can't really listen to the clips you provided), but I would suggest listening to him singing Wolfram in Tannhauser(there's more than one recording in which he sings the role--I have him with Nilsson and Windgassen under Gerdes), or Telramund in Lohengrin, or even (to go back to the beginning of his career) Kurwenal in the Furtwangler recording of Tristan, although that's comparatively minor reason to get it, compared to the other merits of that recording.  And his Mahler song cycles are excellent.

You mention John Shirley-Quirk.  Oddly enough, I usually find him not expressive enough, and his German pronounciation can drive me crazy (for instance, in the Solti Mahler 8 ).