Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau - Obituary

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau has died aged 86 at his home in Berg, Bavaria (Germany). I grew up listening to the voice of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, sadly only in recordings as I never heard him perform live. He is best known for his performances of songs by Schubert although he was also a noted performer of works by J S Bach (who is, as long-time readers of my blog will know, my 'favourite' composer). There is an excellent full obituary in the Telegraph here and I limit myself to quoting its first two paragraphs, but the whole article is well worth reading:

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau 28 May 1925 - 18 May 2012 "Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who has died aged 86, had one of the most sublime baritone voices ever to grace the concert platform or opera house; he was also a towering musical intellect and a crucial cultural figure in the post-war reconstruction of Germany and its rehabilitation within the international community. "The spiritual centre of Fischer-Dieskau’s endeavour was his singing of Schubert. He performed and recorded more than 400 of the composer’s songs, and his interpretations of the cycles Winterreise, Die schöne Müllerin and Schwanengesang with the English pianist Gerald Moore have become a benchmark by which all subsequent readings have been measured." ~ Rest In Peace ~

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Der Lindenbaum Die Winterreise - Franz Schubert




Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Ich Habe Genug (BWV 82) - Johann Sebastian Bach