The late, legendary baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau has a unique position in the history of musical interpretation. In a singing career of 45 years, he in particular exerted a virtually unprecedented influence on the performance of lieder, making a profoundly lasting impact on international singers and accompanists and holding audiences spellbound with the controlled power and beauty of his voice and the intensity and poetry of his interpretations. Among his vast repertoire were almost 3000 songs, some hundreds of cantatas and oratorios and over 100 operatic roles. Although he was most celebrated for his performances and recordings of lieder by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf and Mahler, he was also highly admired in music as diverse as Bach cantatas, operas by Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Strauss, Debussy, Bartok, Henze, Reimann and Messiaen, and choral and solo song compositions by Stravinsky and Britten. On the operatic stage he was chosen by directors such as Luchino Visconti, Carl Ebert, August Everding, Gunther Rennert and Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, and conductors such as Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Sir Georg Solti, Karl Bohm and Carlos Kleiber.

For his 80th birthday in 2005, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau gave Jon Tolansky an interview in which he discussed his life and career in depth. He covered his childhood, his artistic influences during his youth, the flowering of his early career, the blossoming of his later career, and a considerably wide-ranging selection from his repertoire. This interview formed the backbone of the WFMT Radio Network’s two hour documentary “Fischer-Dieskau at 80”, which also included commentary about Fischer-Dieskau from several other distinguished performers. It was aired in May 2005, and it is reproduced in its entirety here in the Singers on Singing: Great Artists in Conversation collection.

–Jon Tolansky

Host:

Jon Tolansky

Guest Artists included in this feature:

• Conductor Sir Edward Downes
• Author and critic Tully Potter
• Pianist Graham Johnson
• Tenor Ian Bostridge
• Former President of EMI Classics Peter Andry
  and several others

Musical excerpts included in this feature:

• “An Die Musik” (Schubert, from the album Fischer-Dieskau: An die Musik)
• Excerpt from Act I of Arabella (Strauss, from the album Arabella)
• Extract from Songs and Proverbs of William Blake (Britten, from Britten: Billy Budd)
• “Die Post” from Winterreise (Schubert, from the album Franz Schubert: Winterreise)
• Extract from Act IV of Don Carlo (Verdi, from the album Giuseppe Verdi: Don Carlos)
• “Denn es gehet dem Menschen” from Four Serious Songs (Brahms, from the album Fischer-Dieskau: Brahms, Schumann, Wolf)
• “Ich hab’ ein glühend Messer” from Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Mahler, from the album Mahler: Lieder)
• “Gute Nacht” (excerpt) from Winterreise (Schubert, from the album Franz Schubert: Winterreise)
• “Auf der Donau” (Schubert, from the album Schubert: Lieder)
• “Der Einsame” (Schubert, from the album A Tribute to Gerald Moore)
• “Im Abendrot” (Schubert, from the album A Tribute to Gerald Moore)
• “Verborgenheit” (Wolf, from the album Fischer-Dieskau: An die Musik)
• “La Grotte” (“Auprès de cette grotte sombre…”) (Debussy, from the album Fischer-Dieskau: An die Musik)
• Extract from Act II & extracts from Act III of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Wagner, from the album Fischer-Dieskau: An die Musik)
• Extract from Act II of Arabella (Strauss, from the album Arabella)
• Extract from Iago’s Credo (Act II) & “Era la notte” from Otello (Verdi, from the album Otello)
• Extract from Bluebeard’s Castle (Bartók, from Bluebeard’s Castle)
• Extract from Act I of Lear (Reimann, from the album Lear)
• Extracts from Act III, Scenes 1 & 3 of Pelléas et Mélisande (Debussy, from the album Pelléas et Mélisande)
• Extract from Act IV, “Willow Song” (with Julia Varady) of Otello (Verdi, from the album Julia Varady: Verdi Heroines, Vol. 2)
• “An Die Musik” (Schubert, from the album Fischer-Dieskau: An die Musik)