RIP Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

[Prospero]

I suspect that it is likely that fewer people here will mourn the great German master of lieder Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau than shed tears for Whitney or Donna. But he was a supreme talent in his field.
RIP

Winterreise, op. 911 (89) (Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Alfred Brendel, 01/1979) - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB-Oh9_5wBY)

[Stavros]

The importance of Fischer-Diskau in the development of classical music has been noted in the obituaries, in particular the way in which he took lieder, which he admitted himself has limited appeal, and made it both a major part of the classical repertoire, and a hugely important career option for singers who either tire of opera or church music, or need the money, or something to do when they retire from theatre. In the process, with an emphasis on German music, he not only rescued a lot of music from obscurity, and that includes a lot of Schubert's songs, he was an important part of the rehabilitation of Germany after the War. It was particulalry poignant in his case because whereas some of his contemporaries, Herbert von Karajan, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and the composer Carl Orff joined the Nazi party (even if it was for 'commercial' reasons, to get a job and so on), DFD suffered from the Third Reich, losing his brother to a euthanasia programme, being forced into the Wehrmacht which was an alien world to him. It may not be surprising that DFD was the first German artist to give a recital in Israel (in 1971) where there had been a time when German songs were sung in translation because the German language itself had been so defiled as to be provocative in that country. In spite of an enormous repertoire, his opera performances were limited -he never appeared at the Met in New York, and was never heard at his best in London outside the Mandryka he gave in the 1960s. His critics thought he over-acted, and there are a lot of expirations in some of his recordings.

I was lucky, having seen him live on three or four occasions; the voice was as impeccable as he was, unforgettable, something that one treasures for a lifetime.