RE: R.I.P., Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

Music Lane

It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes.

Posted by Logan (A) on May 18, 2012 at 21:31:45

In Reply to: R.I.P., Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau posted by Russell on May 18, 2012 at 10:22:26:

As an ignorant youth developing an interest in classical music I was initially drawn to the operas of Verdi and Puccini - the frothy ones like Traviata, Trovatore, and Boheme. Otello and Falstaff were just too heavy and lacking in good tunes. And as for Wagner? I didn't like it, I couldn't understand it, but I tried again and again.

So one night in the late 1950s I was listening to a radio re-broadcast of a Bayreuth production of Parsifal. All was incomprehensible murk and gloom until a character called Amfortas started singing, and suddenly the perfection and clarity of the singer's voice illuminated Wagner's music for me, once and for all. The announcer at the end mentioned that the singer of the role was someone called Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, but I'd never heard of him. I did resolve to look him up and perhaps buy some of his records. But now I understood and loved Wagner as much as Verdi and Puccini, and Otello at last made sense.

A year or so later my room-mates at college bought me a double LP of something called Das Lied von der Erde by someone called Mahler for my 21st birthday, with DFD doing the baritone version (conducted by Paul Kletzki). That opened up a whole new world of music for me too, and although I now have about 15 different recordings of Das Lied, this is still the one I return to most frequently. Around the same time I heard Gerard Souzay sing Mahler's Kindertotenlieder live, which cemented my life-long love of Mahler and confirmed my view that a monumentally great musician can cast a light into the music of a composer where all before was darkness and doubt. Unfortunately I never did hear DFD live, so Souzay stays in my memory as the best I actually heard. Not a bad second.

Fischer-Dieskau's singing brought me to at least two composers whose music has become a strong influence in my life. I remain convinced that he was the finest male singer of the 20th century.

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - R.I.P., Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau - Russell 10:22:26 05/18/12 (15)

Baritone idol - jusbe 14:58:42 05/19/12 (0)

RIP, indeed. nt - tinear 08:06:27 05/19/12 (0)

What a life, from early mono to late stereo. nt - jdaniel@jps.net 21:57:31 05/18/12 (0)

RE: R.I.P., Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau - Logan 21:31:45 05/18/12 (0)

RE: R.I.P., Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau - learsfool 18:46:04 05/18/12 (0)

we had/have a lot of those DGG and Angel lieder records... - docw 14:01:32 05/18/12 (0)

RE: R.I.P., Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau - Brian Cheney 11:22:51 05/18/12 (6)

Schumann - Bob Stern 14:54:08 05/18/12 (5)

That Kerner Lieder from the mid 1950s with - jult52 12:09:37 05/22/12 (0)

RE: Schumann - Kas 08:16:26 05/20/12 (2)

RE: Schumann - Brian Cheney 09:20:30 05/20/12 (1)

RE: Schumann - Mali 17:54:45 05/20/12 (0)

Completely agree with both of you - rbolaw 21:03:29 05/18/12 (0)

Inevitable but deeply affecting - TGR 10:53:04 05/18/12 (0)

"Dieter", R.I.P. - Poles Apart 10:30:01 05/18/12 (0)

Follow Ups

RE: R.I.P., Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau - Logan 21:31:45 05/18/12 (0)

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