Featured In
ALBUMJesu bleibet meine FreudeDietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Karl Richter & Gerhard Schnitter
Albums by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
ALBUMCornelius: LiederDietrich Fischer-Dieskau
ALBUMBeethoven: 27 Lieder by Dietrich Fischer-DieskauDietrich Fischer-Dieskau & Hertha Klust
ALBUMBeethoven: FolksongsEdith Mathis, Alexander Young, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Andreas Roehn, Georg Donderer, Karl Engel & RIAS Kammerchor
ALBUMBrahms: Die schöne Magelone, Op. 33Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau & Jörg Demus
ALBUMBrahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45 by Otto KlempererOtto Klemperer, Philharmonia Orchestra & Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
ALBUMSchubert: Art SongsDietrich Fischer-Dieskau & Klaus Billing
ALBUMWagner: Tristan und Isolde, WWV 90 (Remastered 2021)Ludwig Suthaus, Kirsten Flagstad, Blanche Thebom, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Philharmonia Orchestra & Wilhelm Furtwängler
ALBUMDietrich Fischer-Dieskau: Lied-Edition, Vol. 2Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
ALBUMWolf & Reger: Orchestral LiederDietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Munich Radio Orchestra & Stefan Soltesz
ALBUMStrauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten, Op. 65Birgit Nilsson, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Ingrid Bjoner, James King, Bayerische Staatsopernchor, Bavarian State Orchestra & Wolfgang Sawallisch
Artist Playlists
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Essentials
One of the greatest and most-devoted champions of German song.
Artist Biography
There has never been a greater or more influential master of the art song (and especially its German form, the Lied) than Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. His elegant baritone was a model of refinement, minutely responsive to text and so skilled at telling stories through music that he could turn three minutes of Schubert into a miniature opera. But then, he was also an opera singer of distinction, celebrated for the agile intelligence he brought to Mozart, Strauss, and Wagner roles across a 31-year career. Born in 1925, he grew up in wartime Berlin, and as a 17-year-old he sang his first Winterreise—Schubert’s harrowing song cycle about a winter journey—in a suburb of that city, in a performance interrupted by RAF bombers. Such experiences left their mark and fed into the peculiar poignancy he brought to the Lieder repertoire—which he recorded with an encyclopedic thoroughness. Nearly every song of Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Strauss, Wolf, and Mendelssohn was committed to disc at least once (in the case of Winterreise, eight times!). And they contributed to a vast discography including many of his stage roles: the Count in Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Kurwenal in the legendary 1952 Furtwängler recording of Tristan. Intellectual curiosity drew him into partnership with contemporary composers like Britten, who wrote War Requiem’s baritone solos for him to premiere in 1962 (a telling gesture given Fischer-Dieskau’s past). And such new works sat alongside the Bach Passions as an interest he maintained until his retirement on New Year's Day, 1993. He died, aged 86, in 2012.
Hometown
Berlin, Germany
Genre
Classical