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Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Baritone (1925-2012)

Hugo Wolf - Abschied (1888)
After a poem by Eduard Mörike (1837)
With Gerald Moore (1899-1987)
Recorded around 1958

My personal opinion: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is ranked as one of the most important singers of all time. His recording legacy is a vast one. His musical knowledge is enormous, and sometimes it pointed critics into their barriers. Fischer-Dieskau´s books about Schumann and Schubert are most worth reading. He raised his art on an intellectual level, and showed what is possible in art song singing. One reviewer simply called him a "monolith". But maybe Fischer-Dieskau was much too sophisticated to hit the nerve of the masses. His singing never was tolerably for everyone. Even if "he was the most important song singer at all" (Kenneth Whitton, one of Fischer-Dieskau´s biographs), for others he was academic arrogantly. Paul Hindemith once said to him: "You are not a singer, you´re a bard!" Christa Ludwig called him "Dr. h.c. Lied". One hardly can sing Lieder in a "better" way, but I´m sure one can sing it in a more appealing way (Wunderlich, Schiotz). To hear Fischer-Dieskau means you get a musical lecture with a wagging finger. With him, I miss spontaneity and in some measure "the pure joy of singing". So the question comes up: Is it necessary for a singer, to promote an academic kind of art? Who will give an answer?
For some of his operatic roles, Fischer-Dieskau received great refusal. Indeed his lyric baritone-voice wasn´t made for dramatic roles of Verdi and Wagner. It was a mistake, to sing Rigoletto or Kurwenal. Neither he possessed the vocal "Physique du Role" for such parts, nor he had the power. Of course, his Holländer is a masterpiece of diction, but a lyrical lightweight without demonic and spooky attitudes. Sometimes, Fischer-Dieskau changed from magnificence to grotesque, vocal limits unnecessarily became recognizable. He was much better in the ancestral repertory: His Count Almaviva in Mozart´s "Nozze di Figaro" is a character study of noblesse and blasé and bigotry at once. Apart from some mistakes to excuse, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau´s greatest strenght basically was his tremendous devotion for music at all - in a singer-career, that spanned from the late 1940s to 1992. For further informations, please have a short overview on [ Ссылка ]. He was called a "Mastersinger", and with 68 votings he received a great position on fourth place! Please allow me to present Mr. Fischer-Dieskau with one of my favorite songs by Hugo Wolf: The funny story of a man, who receives an uninvited visitor (of all people a critic!), but he gives him a fitting farewell - and that´s why Hugo Wolf simply named his song "Abschied!". Fischer-Dieskau and the critics, most of the time it was an indifferent relationship. The baritone simply stayed as the "monolith"...
"The Monolith" Fischer-Dieskau died on May 18th 2012 aged 87.

Translation of the german lyrics:
Without knocking a man came to me in the evening
I have the honor of being your
critic!
He took, at once, a light in hand,
He inspected, for a while, my shadow on the wall
He looked near and far: Now dear young man,
See there if you please your nose from the side!
You must admit, that its abnormal.
That? Stars above!- -youre right!

O Heavens! I didnt know, not for my entire life
That I had such a gigantic nose on my face!
The man spoke about other various things
I know, on my honor, nothing more,
Perhaps I should have confessed to him.
At last he stood up; I lit his way
When we were on the steps
I gave him, there, and whole-heartedly,
A little kick
From behind on the seat of his pants
O hailstones! What a jolting
A tumbling, and a hobbling!
Such a sight I have never seen,
In all my days,
A man go down the stairs
So quickly!

THE COMPLETE OVERVIEW: GO TO ALL SINGERS IN THIS LIST
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