Alfred Brendel, 2010

Alfred Brendel KBE (born 5 January 1931) is an Austrian pianist, born in Czechoslovakia and a resident of the United Kingdom. He is also a poet and author.

Biography[link]

Brendel was born in Wiesenberg, Czechoslovakia, now Loučná nad Desnou, Czech Republic, to a non-musical family. They moved to Zagreb when Brendel was six, and later to Graz, where they lived during World War II, towards the end of which the 14-year old Brendel was sent to Yugoslavia to dig trenches. However, he developed frostbite and was taken to hospital. Brendel began piano lessons when he was six with Sofija Deželić, and at 14 he studied piano with Ludovica von Kaan and composition in the Graz Conservatory for the next two years, but otherwise had little formal music education.

After the war, Brendel composed music, as well as continuing to play the piano and to paint. However, he never had more formal piano lessons and although he attended masterclasses with Edwin Fischer and Eduard Steuermann, he was largely self-taught.

Brendel gave his first public recital in Graz at the age of 17.^[1] He called it "The Fugue In Piano Literature", and as well as fugal works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms and Franz Liszt, it included some of Brendel's own compositions. However, he gave up composing shortly after this to concentrate on the piano. In 1949 he won 4th prize in the Ferruccio Busoni Piano Competition in Bolzano, Italy and moved to Vienna the following year. At the age of 21, he made his first record, Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 5. He went on to make a string of other records, including three complete sets of the Ludwig van Beethoven piano sonatas (one on Vox Records and two on Philips Records). He was the first performer to record the complete solo piano works of Beethoven.^[2] He has also recorded works by Liszt, Brahms (including Brahms' concertos), Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert. Unlike most classical pianists, Brendel has recorded very little by Frédéric Chopin other than the polonaises. An important collection of Alfred Brendel is the complete Mozart piano concertos recorded with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, which is included in the Phillips 180 CD complete Mozart Edition.

Brendel recorded extensively for the Vox label, providing them his first of three sets of the complete Beethoven sonatas. He did not secure a major recording contract until the 1970s, nor did he play much outside Austria. His breakthrough came after a recital of Beethoven at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the day after which three major record labels called his agent. Around this time he moved to Hampstead, London, where he still resides.^[1] Since the 1970s, Brendel has recorded for Philips Classics Records.^[3]

Brendel has been married twice. His first marriage, from 1960 to 1972, was to Iris Heymann-Gonzala, and they had a daughter, Doris. In 1975, Brendel married Irene Semler, and the couple have three children; a son, Adrian, who is a cellist, and two daughters, Katharina and Sophie.^[4]

In April 2007, Brendel was one of the initial signatories of the "Appeal for the Establishment of a Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations".^[5]

In 2009, Brendel was featured in the award-winning German-Austrian documentary Pianomania, about a Steinway & Sons piano tuner, which was directed by Lilian Franck and Robert Cibis. The film premiered theatrically in North America, where it was met with positive reviews by The New York Times^[6], as well as in Asia and throughout Europe, and is a part of the Goethe-Institut catalogue.

Work[link]

Brendel is regarded as one of the most thoughtful interpreters of classical Germanic works by such composers as Beethoven, Schubert and Mozart. He plays relatively few 20th century works, but is closely associated with Arnold Schoenberg's Piano Concerto. Toward the end of his concert career he stopped playing many of the most physically demanding pieces in the repertoire, such as the Hammerklavier Sonata of Beethoven, owing to problems with arthritis.

Critical reaction to Brendel's playing has been mixed. While he has been lauded by Michael Steinberg as "the new Schnabel", critic Harold C. Schonberg noted that some critics and specialists accused the pianist of "pedanticism".^[7] Brendel's playing is sometimes described as being "cerebral",^[8] and he has said that he believes the primary job of the pianist is to respect the composer's wishes without showing off himself, or adding his own spin on the music:

"I am responsible to the composer, and particularly to the piece".^[4]

As well as his former mentor and teacher, Edwin Fischer, he cites Alfred Cortot, Wilhelm Kempff, and the conductors Bruno Walter and Wilhelm Furtwängler as particular influences.

In recent years, Brendel has worked with younger pianists such as Paul Lewis, Mark Gasser, Roberto Carnevale, Andrew von Oeyen, Till Fellner and, most recently, Kit Armstrong.^[9] He has also performed in concert and recorded with his son Adrian.^[10]

In November 2007, Brendel announced that he would retire from the concert platform after his concert of 18 December 2008 in Vienna, which featured him as soloist in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat; the orchestra (the Vienna Philharmonic) was conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras.^[2] His final concert in New York was at Carnegie Hall on 20 February 2008, with works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert. Since his debut at the Carnegie Hall on 21 January 1973 he has appeared there 81 times, and in 1983 he became only the second pianist to perform the complete cycle of Beethoven's piano sonatas at the Hall.

Brendel has been Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music since 1972.^[11]

Publications[link]

Brendel is also a published poet and author.^[12] His books include:

• Musical Thoughts and Afterthoughts (Essays) (1976)
• Music Sounded Out (1990)
• One Finger Too Many (Poetry) (1998)
• Alfred Brendel on Music (collected essays) (2001)
• Me, of All People: Alfred Brendel in Conversation with Martin Meyer (2002) (UK edition: The Veil of Order)
• Cursing Bagels (Poetry) (2004)

Awards[link]

• Honorary Knight of the Order of the British Empire (KBE; 1989)
• Honorary Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford
• Sonning Award (2002; Denmark)
• Ernst von Siemens Music Prize (2004)
• Praemium Imperiale (2009)^[13]
• Voted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame (2012)^[14]

Recordings[link]

• Alfred Brendel - Unpublished Live and Radio Performances 1968-2001
• Great Pianists of the 20th Century - Alfred Brendel III

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Alfred Brendel

• Alfred Brendel official website

Interviews

• Alfred Brendel interview by Bruce Duffie

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alfred Brendel

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (28 May 1925 – 18 May 2012^[1]) was a German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous Lieder (art song) performers of the post-war period, described as "one of the supreme vocal artists of the 20th century"^[2] and "the most influential singer of the 20th Century".^[3] Fischer-Dieskau was ranked the second greatest singer of the century (after Jussi Björling) by Classic CD (United Kingdom) "Top Singers of the Century" Critics' Poll (June 1999).

The French dubbed him "Le miracle Fischer-Dieskau" and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf called him "a born god who has it all."^[4] At his peak, he was greatly admired for his interpretive insights and exceptional control of his beautiful voice. Fischer-Dieskau also performed and recorded a great many operatic roles. He was the most recorded singer of all time.^[5] He dominated both the opera and concert platform for over thirty years.^[6]

Recording an astonishing array of repertoire (spanning centuries) as musicologist Alan Blyth asserted, "No singer in our time, or probably any other has managed the range and versatility of repertory achieved by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Opera, Lieder and oratorio in German, Italian or English came alike to him, yet he brought to each a precision and individuality that bespoke his perceptive insights into the idiom at hand." In addition, he recorded in French, Russian, Hebrew and Hungarian.

He was most admired, though, as a singer of Schubert Lieder, particularly the cycle Winterreise.^[7] His recordings of Winterreise with accompanist Gerald Moore and Jörg Demus are still critically acclaimed half a century after their release.^[8]

Early years[link]

Albert Dietrich Fischer was born in 1925 in Berlin to Albert Fischer, a school principal, and Theodora (Dora) née Klingelhoffer, a teacher. In 1934, his father added the hyphenated "Dieskau" to the family name (through his mother, he was descended from the Kammerherr von Dieskau, for whom Johann Sebastian Bach wrote the "Peasant Cantata"). He started singing as a child and began formal voice lessons at the age of 16. When he was drafted into the Wehrmacht during World War II in 1943, tending horses on the Russian Front, Fischer-Dieskau had just completed his secondary school studies and one semester at the Berlin Conservatory. He was captured in Italy in 1945 and spent two years as an American prisoner of war. During that time, he sang Lieder in POW camps to homesick German soldiers. He had an infirm brother who was sent to an institution by the Nazi regime and starved to death.^[9] His family home was also destroyed during the war.^[10]

Singing career[link]

In 1947, he returned to Germany where he launched his professional career as a singer in Badenweiler, singing in Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem without any rehearsal. (He was a last-minute substitute for an indisposed singer.) He gave his first Lieder recital in Leipzig in the autumn of 1947 and followed it soon afterwards with a highly successful first concert at Berlin's Titania-Palast.

From early in his career he collaborated with famous lyric sopranos Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Irmgard Seefried, and the recording producer Walter Legge, issuing instantly successful albums of Lieder by Schubert and Hugo Wolf.

In the autumn of 1948, Fischer-Dieskau was engaged as principal lyric baritone at the Städtische Oper Berlin (Municipal Opera, West Berlin), making his debut as Posa in Verdi's Don Carlos under Ferenc Fricsay. This company, known after 1961 as the Deutsche Oper, would remain his artistic home until his retirement from the operatic stage, in 1978.

Subsequently, Fischer-Dieskau made guest appearances at the opera houses in Vienna and Munich. After 1949 he made concert tours in the Netherlands, Switzerland, France and Italy. In 1951, he made his Salzburg Festival concert debut with Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer) under Wilhelm Furtwängler. That year, he also made his British debut, at the Royal Albert Hall in London during the Festival of Britain. He appeared in Frederick Delius's A Mass of Life, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham.^[11] He made regular opera appearances at the Bayreuth Festival between 1954 and 1961 and at the Salzburg Festival from 1956 until the early 1970s.

As an opera singer, Fischer-Dieskau performed mainly in Berlin and at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. He also made guest appearances at the Vienna State Opera, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London, at the Hamburg State Opera, in Japan, and at the King's Theatre in Edinburgh, during the Edinburgh Festival. His first tour in the United States took place in 1955, when he was 29, with his concert debut in Cincinnati on 15 April (J. S. Bach's Kreuzstab cantata ) and 16 April (Ein Deutsches Requiem). His American Lieder debut, singing Franz Schubert songs, took place in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on 19 April. His New York City debut occurred on 2 May at The Town Hall, where he sang Schubert's song cycle Winterreise without an interval. Both American recitals were accompanied by Gerald Moore.

In 1951, Fischer-Dieskau made his first of many recordings of Lieder with Gerald Moore at the EMI Studios, London, including a complete Die schöne Müllerin, and they performed the work on 31 January 1952 at the Kingsway Hall, London in the Mysore Concerts of the Philharmonia Concert Society.^[12] They gave recitals together until Moore retired from public performance in 1967. They continued, however, to record together until 1972, in which year they completed their massive project of recording all of the Schubert lieder appropriate for the male voice. Gerald Moore retired completely in 1972, and died in 1987, aged 87. Their recordings of Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise are highly prized as examples of their artistic partnership.

Fischer-Dieskau also performed many works of contemporary music, including Benjamin Britten (who chose Fischer-Dieskau as the baritone soloist when writing War Requiem), Samuel Barber, Hans Werner Henze, Karl Amadeus Hartmann (who wrote his Gesangsszene for him), Ernst Krenek, Witold Lutosławski, Siegfried Matthus, Winfried Zillig, Gottfried von Einem and Aribert Reimann. He participated in the 1975 premiere and 1993 recording of Gottfried von Einem's cantata An die Nachgeborenen, written in 1973 as a commission of the UN, both with Julia Hamari and the Wiener Symphoniker conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini.^[13]

Beyond his recordings of Lieder and the German opera repertoire, Fischer-Dieskau also recorded performances in the Italian operatic field. His recordings of Verdi's Rigoletto (alongside Renata Scotto and Carlo Bergonzi) and Rodrigo in Verdi's Don Carlos, are probably the most respected of these ventures. Others, such as the title role in Verdi's Macbeth (with Elena Souliotis), Giorgio Germont in Verdi's La traviata, and Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca (with Birgit Nilsson), are not delivered by him with the same degree of effectiveness. They display his characteristic perceptiveness and intelligence but lack idiomatic Mediterranean vocal colour and temperament - perhaps, in short, seeming too Germanic.^{[citation needed]} However, as with the operatic interpretations of Schwarzkopf and Maria Callas, Fisher-Dieskau's performances on disc always seem thought out and are often true to the score.^{[citation needed]} As conductor Ferenc Fricsay put it, "I never dreamed I'd find an Italian baritone in Berlin." Fischer-Dieskau retired from opera in 1978, the year he recorded his final opera, Aribert Reimann's Lear, that the composer had written at his suggestion.

Throughout his career, his musicianship and technique were flawless. As Greg Sandow of Opera News put it, "Overall, his technique is breath-taking; someone should build a monument to it."^[14] He retired from the concert hall as of New Year's Day, 1993, at 67, and dedicated himself to conducting, teaching (especially the interpretation of Lieder), painting and writing books. He has still performed as a reciter, reading for example the letters of Strauss to Hugo von Hofmannsthal, read by Gert Westphal, for the Rheingau Musik Festival in 1994; and both performing and recording Strauss's melodrama Enoch Arden. He is also an honorary member of the Robert Schumann Society.

As 'the world's greatest Lieder singer' (Time magazine), he regularly sold out concert halls all over the world until his retirement at the end of 1992. The precisely articulated accuracy of his performances, in which text and music were presented as equal partners, established standards that endure today. The current widespread interest in German Romantic art song is mainly due to his efforts. Perhaps most admired as a singer of Schubert Lieder, Fischer-Dieskau had, according to critic Joachim Kaiser, only one really serious competitor - himself, as over the decades he set new standards, explored new territories and expressed unanticipated feelings and emotions.^[15]

Few artists achieve the level of recognition, admiration and influence of Fischer-Dieskau, and even fewer live to see that influence realised during their own lifetime. Ushering in the modern recording era, he challenged our perception and processes of how recordings could be made, explored the possibilities of modern recording and exploited the potential for the popularity of classical music - and all this while setting standards of artistic achievement, integrity, risk-taking, and of the aesthetic ideal that became our new norm. Whenever we bask in the beauty of his tone, revere the probing, questioning power of his intellect, or simply wonder at the astonishing physical abilities throughout all that he has achieved in his long recording career, we must also pause and say THANK YOU to this great artist, whose legacy, like a great and bright star lighting the way for those who follow in his passion for singing, is exemplary in every way.—Thomas Hampson, May 2012, Hall of Fame, Gramophone Magazine.

Awards[link]

• Léonie Sonning Music Prize 1975
• Ernst von Siemens Music Prize 1980
• Polar Music Prize 2005
• Gramophone Hall of Fame entrant 2012^[16]

Personal life[link]

In 1949, Fischer-Dieskau married the cellist Irmgard Poppen. Together they had three sons: Mathias (stage designer), Martin (conductor), and Manuel (cellist). Irmgard died in 1963 of complications following childbirth. Afterwards, Fischer-Dieskau was married to the actress Ruth Leuwerik, from 1965 to 1967, and Christina Pugel-Schule, from 1968 to 1975. In 1977 he married the soprano Júlia Várady.

His older brother Klaus Fischer-Dieskau was a notable Berlin choral director who conducted Fischer-Dieskau several times, including in his only recording of a passion by Heinrich Schütz in 1961.

Death[link]

On Friday, 18 May 2012, Fischer-Dieskau died in his sleep at his home in Berg, Upper Bavaria, ten days before his 87th birthday.^[17]

Partial discography[link]

As singer[link]

Fischer-Dieskau recorded mainly on the labels EMI, DG and Orfeo.

• Bach, 75 Cantatas, with Karl Richter on the Polygram label
• Bach, Jesus and bass parts in the Passions under a wide host of conductors, e.g. Herbert von Karajan, Otto Klemperer, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Fritz Lehmann, and Karl Richter
• Bartók, Bluebeard's Castle, with Ferenc Fricsay
• Bartók, Bluebeard's Castle, with Wolfgang Sawallisch
• Beethoven, Fidelio, with Fricsay
• Beethoven, Fidelio, with Leonard Bernstein
• Alban Berg, Wozzeck, with Karl Böhm
• Alban Berg, Lulu, with Karl Böhm
• Brahms, Ein Deutsches Requiem, with Rudolf Kempe
• Brahms, Ein deutsches Requiem, with Otto Klemperer and the Philharmonia Orchestra on the Angel label
• Brahms, Ein deutsches Requiem, with Otto Klemperer, the Philharmonia Orchestra and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf on the EMI label 1961 recorded at Kingsway Hall in March 1961
• Brahms, Liebeslieder Walzer on the Deutsche Grammophon label
• Brahms, Vier ernste Gesänge, lieder, with Jörg Demus, piano on the Deutsche Grammophon label
• Britten, War Requiem, Benjamin Britten conducting, with Galina Vishnevskaya and Sir Peter Pears
• Busoni, Doktor Faust, conductor Ferdinand Leitner
• Cimarosa, The Secret Marriage, with Daniel Barenboim
• Debussy, Mélodies, with Hartmut Höll, piano, recorded 1988 for Claves Records, available in 2006 on Brilliant Classics
• Fauré, Requiem, Op. 48 under André Cluytens on EMI
• Gluck, Orpheus ed Eurydice with Karl Richter
• Gluck, Iphigenie in Aulis with Artur Rother
• Gluck, Iphigenie in Aulis with Kurt Eichhorn and Anna Moffo
• Haydn, The Creation, with Herbert von Karajan
• Henze, Elegie für junge Liebende, with Martha Mödl, the composer conducting
• Paul Hindemith, Cardillac, with Josef Keilberth
• Paul Hindemith, Mathis der Maler, with Rafael Kubelík
• Paul Hindemith, When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd (Requiem "for those we love"), with Wolfgang Sawallisch
• Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde, with Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic
• Mahler, Lieder, with Daniel Barenboim, piano, on the EMI label
• Mahler, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Des Knaben Wunderhorn, with Daniel Barenboim, piano, on the Sony label
• Mahler, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Kindertotenlieder with orchestra, with Wilhelm Furtwängler and Rudolf Kempe, on the EMI label
• Mahler, Kindertotenlieder, with Karl Böhm
• Mahler, Rückert-Lieder, on the Deutsche Grammophon label
• Felix Mendelssohn, Lieder, with Hartmut Höll, piano, recorded 1989 and 1991 for Claves Records, available in 2006 on Brilliant Classics
• Mozart and Haydn Discoveries, with Reinhard Peters and the Vienna Haydn Orchestra on the Decca label
• Mozart, The Magic Flute with Ferenc Fricsay
• Mozart, The Magic Flute, with Karl Böhm
• Mozart, The Magic Flute, with Georg Solti (as the Sprecher)
• Mozart, The Marriage of Figaro, with Karl Böhm
• Mozart, The Marriage of Figaro, with Ferenc Fricsay
• Mozart, Don Giovanni, with Ferenc Fricsay
• Mozart, Don Giovanni, with Karl Böhm
• Mozart, Così fan tutte, at least two different recordings are available, one starring Gundula Janowitz as Fiordiligi; the other starring Irmgard Seefried, both conducted by Karl Böhm.
• Mozart, Requiem, with Daniel Barenboim
• Offenbach, Les contes d'Hoffmann, as Lindorf/Coppelius/Miracle/Dapertutto on the EMI label
• Orff, Carmina Burana, with Eugen Jochum and the Chor und Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin on the Deutsche Grammophon label
• Puccini, Tosca, with Birgit Nilsson, as well as excerpts in German with Anja Silja, on Decca Records
• Reger, Hebbel Requiem with the Philharmoniker Hamburg and Gerd Albrecht
• Reimann, Lear, with the Bavarian State Orchestra on the Polygram label
• Schoeck, Lebendig begraben, with Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, on the Deutsche Grammophon label
• Schoeck, Notturno, five movements für voice and string quartet, on EMI Classics
• Schoeck, Lieder, with Margrit Weber (piano) and Karl Engel (piano), on the Deutsche Grammophon label
• Schubert, Deutsche Messe, with Wolfgang Sawallisch and the Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks on the Capitol label
• Schubert, Winterreise, with Gerald Moore, piano, on the Deutsche Grammophon label
• Schubert, Winterreise, with Daniel Barenboim, piano, on the Deutsche Grammophon label
• Schubert, Die Winterreise, with Jörg Demus, piano, on the Deutsche Grammophon label
• Schubert, Die schöne Müllerin, with Gerald Moore, piano, on the Angel label
• Schubert, Lieder, with Gerald Moore, piano on the Deutsche Grammophon label
• Schubert, Lieder, with Sviatoslav Richter, piano on the Deutsche Grammophon label
• Schubert, Missa Solemnis and Masses in C major and E flat major, with Wolfgang Sawallisch and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra on the EMI label
• Schubert, Schwanengesang, with Gerald Moore, piano on the EMI label
• Schubert, Lieder, with Hartmut Höll, piano, recorded 1987 for Claves Records, available in 2006 on Brilliant Classics
• Schumann, Dichterliebe, Liederkreis, and the complete lieder for male voice, with Christoph Eschenbach, piano, on the Deutsche Grammophon label
• Schumann, Liederkreis, with Gerald Moore, piano, on the EMI label
• Schütz St Matthew Passion SWV 479. Berlin Hugo-Distler Chor, dir. Klaus Fischer-Dieskau Archiv LP 1961^[18]
• Shostakovich, Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti and Four Verses of Captain Lebyadkin, with Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin on the Polygram label
• Shostakovich, Symphony No. 14 with Bernard Haitink and the Concertgebouw Orchestra on the Decca label
• Richard Strauss, Elektra, with Karl Böhm
• Strauss, Arabella, with Wolfgang Sawallisch
• Strauss, Die Frau ohne Schatten, with Joseph Keilberth (Deutsche Grammophon; re-released on Brilliant Classics)
• Strauss, Salome, with Karl Böhm
• Strauss, Der Rosenkavalier, with Karl Böhm
• Strauss, Ariadne auf Naxos, with Kurt Masur
• Strauss, Capriccio, with Wolfgang Sawallisch
• Johann Strauss, Die Fledermaus, with Willi Boskovsky
• Verdi, Un ballo in maschera (in German), with Fritz Busch
• Verdi, La traviata, with Lorin Maazel
• Verdi, Otello
• Verdi, Falstaff, with Leonard Bernstein
• Verdi, Macbeth, with Elena Souliotis
• Verdi, Rigoletto with Renata Scotto, Carlo Bergonzi, Rafael Kubelík and the La Scala Orchestra on the Deutsche Grammophon label
• Verdi, Don Carlos, in German, with Ferenc Fricsay and Josef Greindl, 1948 (his operatic debut)
• Verdi, Don Carlos, in Italian, with Georg Solti
• Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, as Hans Sachs, with Eugen Jochum and the Berliner Staatsopernorchester on the Deutsche Grammophon label
• Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, as Fritz Kothner the baker, with Andre Clutyens, at Bayreuth, 1956
• Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, as Hans Sachs, with Eugen Jochum, Chor und Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin, 1976, Deutsche Grammophon
• Wagner, Lohengrin with Rudolf Kempe (EMI), as Friedrich von Telramund
• Wagner, Lohengrin, with Eugen Jochum (Conductor), Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, 1954, as the Heerrufer
• Wagner, Lohengrin, with Georg Solti, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, as the Heerrufer (Decca)
• Wagner, The Flying Dutchman, with Franz Konwitschny (EMI)
• Wagner, Tannhäuser, with Franz Konwitschny (EMI)
• Wagner, Das Rheingold, with Herbert von Karajan (DG)
• Wagner, Götterdämmerung, with Georg Solti and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra on the Decca label
• Wagner, Tristan und Isolde, with Wilhelm Furtwängler
• Wagner, Tristan und Isolde, with Carlos Kleiber
• Wagner, Parsifal, with Hans Knappertsbusch (live at Bayreuth, 1956, CD manufactured by Arkadia)
• Wagner, Parsifal, in studio with Georg Solti
• Weber, Lieder, with Hartmut Höll, piano, recorded 1991 for Claves Records, available in 2006 on Brilliant Classics
• Wolf, Frühe Lieder, with Hartmut Höll, piano, recorded 1986 for Claves Records, available in 2006 on Brilliant Classics
• Zemlinsky, Lyrische Symphonie, with Lorin Maazel

As reciter[link]

• Strauss, Enoch Arden, with Burkhard Kehring, piano

On video[link]

• Schubert, Winterreise, recorded July 1990, with Murray Perahia (piano), from Sony Classical.
• Schubert, Winterreise, recorded January 1979, with Alfred Brendel (piano), Sender Freies Berlin (SFB), from TDK 2005.
• Mozart, Don Giovanni, Deutsche Oper Berlin, with Ferenc Fricsay, live performance in German, recorded September 24, 1961. Cast includes Pilar Lorengar, Elisabeth Grümmer, Walter Berry, Erika Köth, Donald Grobe, and Josef Greindl.
• Strauss (Richard), Mahler, and Schubert: "Schwarzkopf, Seefried, and Fischer-Dieskau", a DVD from EMI Classics. Includes Schwarzkopf playing the Marschallin and Fischer-Dieskau singing "Der Erlkönig".
• Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Lorin Maazel, from the Salzburg Festival, 1963. A DVD from VAI.
• Mozart, Die Zauberflöte (1971) Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra and Chorus of Hamburg State Opera, conducted by Horst Stein, directed by Sir Peter Ustinov. Fischer-Dieskau in a cameo non-singing role as the Speaker, with Hans Sotin as Sarastro, Nicolai Gedda as Tamino, Cristina Deutekom as Queen of the Night, Edith Mathis as Pamina, William Workman as Papageno. A DVD from Arthaus Musik GmbH, Leipzig.

As conductor[link]

• Berlioz, Harold in Italy with violist Josef Suk and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra on the Supraphon label
• Brahms, Symphony No. 4, with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra on the Supraphon label
• Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde with the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart on the Orfeo label
• Schubert, Symphonies #5 and 8 "Unfinished," with the New Philharmonia Orchestra on the EMI label
• Richard Strauss, Arias from Salome, Ariadne auf Naxos, Die Liebe der Danae, and Capriccio, with Júlia Várady and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra on the Orfeo label
• Richard Wagner, Wesendonck Lieder with Júlia Várady, Deutschland-Sinfonie-Orchester, Orfeo

Footnotes[link]

Books[link]

• The Fischer-Dieskau Book of Lieder: The Original Texts of over 750 Songs, translated by Richard Stokes and George Bird. Random House, 1977. (ISBN 0-394-49435-0)
• Reverberations: The Memoirs of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, translated by Ruth Hein. Fromm International, 1989. (ISBN 0-88064-137-1)
• Robert Schumann Words and Music: The Vocal Compositions, translated by Reinhard G. Pauly. Hal Leonard, 1992. (ISBN 0-931340-06-3)
• Schubert's Songs: A Biographical Study. Alfred A. Knopf, 1977. (ISBN 0-394-48048-1)
• Wagner and Nietzsche, translated by Joachim Neugroschel. Continuum International, 1976.
• Jupiter und ich: Begegnungen mit Furtwängler, Berlin University Press, 2009.

Further reading[link]

• Neunzig, Hans A. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Trans. Kenneth S Whitton. Gerald Duckworth & Co, 1998. (ISBN 0-7156-2818-6)
• Whitton, Kenneth S. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau: Mastersinger Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1981. (ISBN 0-8419-0728-5)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

• Biography at Mwolf.com
• 2000 Interview with Steve Holtje for CDNOW.com

1875 oil painting by Wilhelm August Rieder, after his own 1825 watercolor portrait

Franz Peter Schubert (German pronunciation: [ˈfʁants ˈʃuːbɛɐ̯t]; 31 January 1797 – 19 November 1828) was an Austrian composer.

Although he died at the age of 31, Schubert was a prolific composer, having written some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies (including the famous "Unfinished Symphony"), liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music. Appreciation of Schubert's music during his lifetime was limited, but interest in his work increased significantly in the decades following his death. Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Felix Mendelssohn, among others, discovered and championed his works in the 19th century. Today, Schubert is seen as one of the leading exponents of the early Romantic era in music and he remains one of the most frequently performed composers.

Biography[link]

Early life and education[link]

Schubert was born in Himmelpfortgrund (now a part of Alsergrund), Vienna, on 31 January 1797. His father, Franz Theodor Schubert, the son of a Moravian peasant, was a parish schoolmaster; his mother, Elisabeth Vietz, was the daughter of a Silesian master locksmith, and had also been a housemaid for a Viennese family prior to her marriage. Of Franz Theodor's fourteen children (one illegitimate child was born in 1783),^[1] nine died in infancy; five survived. Their father was a well-known teacher, and his school in Lichtental, a part of Vienna's 9th district, was well attended.^[2] He was not a musician of fame or with formal training, but he taught his son some elements of music.^[3]

The house in which Schubert was born, today Nussdorfer Strasse 54, in the 9th district of Vienna.

At the age of five, Schubert began receiving regular instruction from his father and a year later was enrolled at his father's school. His formal musical education also started around the same time. His father continued to teach him the basics of the violin,^[3] and his brother Ignaz gave him piano lessons.^[4] At the age of seven, Schubert began receiving lessons from Michael Holzer, the local church organist and choirmaster. Holzer's lessons seem to have mainly consisted of conversations and expressions of admiration^[5] and the boy gained more from his acquaintance with a friendly joiner's apprentice who used to take him to a neighboring pianoforte warehouse where he had the opportunity to practice on better instruments.^[6] He also played the viola in the family string quartet, with brothers Ferdinand and Ignaz on violin and his father on the cello. Schubert wrote many of his early string quartets for this ensemble.^[7]

Schubert first came to the attention of Antonio Salieri, then Vienna's leading musical authority, in 1804, when his vocal talent was recognized.^[7] In October 1808, he became a pupil at the Stadtkonvikt (Imperial seminary) through a choir scholarship. At the Stadtkonvikt, Schubert was introduced to the overtures and symphonies of Mozart.^[8] His exposure to these pieces and various lighter compositions, combined with his occasional visits to the opera set the foundation for his greater musical knowledge.^[9] One important musical influence came from the songs of Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg, who was an important Lied composer of the time, which, his friend Joseph von Spaun reported, he "wanted to modernize".^[10] Schubert's friendship with Spaun began at the Stadtkonvikt and endured through his lifetime. In those early days, the more well-to-do Spaun furnished the impoverished Schubert with manuscript paper.^[9]

Meanwhile, his genius began to show in his compositions. Schubert was occasionally permitted to lead the Stadtkonvikt's orchestra, and Salieri decided to begin training him privately in musical composition and theory in these years.^[11] It was the first germ of that amateur orchestra for which, in later years, many of his compositions were written. During the remainder of his stay at the Stadtkonvikt he wrote a good deal of chamber music, several songs, some miscellaneous pieces for the pianoforte and, among his more ambitious efforts, a Kyrie (D. 31) and Salve Regina (D. 27), an octet for wind instruments (D. 72/72a, said to commemorate the 1812 death of his mother),^[12] a cantata for guitar and male voices (D. 110, in honor of his father's birthday in 1813), and his first symphony (D. 82).^[13]

	Mass No. 2 in G, D. 167 Kyrie Gloria Credo Sanctus Benedictus Agnus Dei Performance by the MIT Concert Choir
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Teacher at his father's school[link]

At the end of 1813, he left the Stadtkonvikt, and returned home for studies at the Normalhauptschule to train as a teacher. In 1814, he entered his father's school as teacher of the youngest students. For over two years, the young man endured the drudgery of the work, which he performed with very indifferent success.^[14] There were, however, other interests to compensate. He continued to receive private lessons in composition from Salieri, who did more for Schubert’s musical training than any of his other teachers. Salieri and Schubert would part ways in 1817.^[11]

In 1814, Schubert met a young soprano named Therese Grob, the daughter of a local silk manufacturer. Several of his songs (Salve Regina and Tantum Ergo) were composed for her voice, and she also performed in the premiere of his first Mass (D. 105) in September^[15] 1814.^[14] Schubert intended to marry Grob, but was hindered by the harsh marriage consent law of 1815,^[16] which required the ability to show the means to support a family.^[17] In November 1816, after failing to gain a position at Laibach, Schubert sent Grob's brother Heinrich a collection of songs, which were retained by her family into the 20th century.^[18][18][18]

One of Schubert's most prolific years was 1815. He composed over 20,000 bars of music, more than half of which was for orchestra, including nine church works, a symphony, and about 140 Lieder.^[19] In that year, he was also introduced to Anselm Hüttenbrenner and Franz von Schober, who would become his lifelong friends. Another friend, Johann Mayrhofer, was introduced to him by Spaun in 1814.^[20] Maynard Solomon suggested that Schubert was erotically attracted to men,^[21] a thesis that has, at times, been heatedly debated.^[22] Musicologist and Schubert expert Rita Steblin claimed that he was "chasing women".^[23]

Supported by friends[link]

Significant changes happened in 1816. Schober, a student of good family and some means, invited Schubert to room with him at his mother's house. The proposal was particularly opportune, for Schubert had just made the unsuccessful application for the post of Kapellmeister at Laibach, and he had also decided not to resume teaching duties at his father's school. By the end of the year, he became a guest in Schober's lodgings. For a time, he attempted to increase the household resources by giving music lessons, but they were soon abandoned, and he devoted himself to composition. "I compose every morning, and when one piece is done, I begin another."^[24] During this year, he focused on orchestral and choral works, although he also continued to write Lieder.^[25] Much of this work was unpublished, but manuscripts and copies circulated among friends and admirers.^[26]

Schubert and Vogl

In early 1817, Schober introduced Schubert to Johann Michael Vogl, a prominent baritone twenty years Schubert's senior. Vogl, for whom Schubert went on to write a great many songs, became one of Schubert's main proponents in Viennese musical circles. He also met Joseph Hüttenbrenner (brother to Anselm), who also played a role in promoting Schubert's music.^[27] These, and an increasing circle of friends and musicians, became responsible for promoting, collecting, and, after his death, preserving, his work.^[28]

In late 1817, Schubert's father gained a new position at a school in Rossau (not far from Lichtental). Schubert rejoined his father and reluctantly took up teaching duties there. In early 1818, he was rejected for membership in the prestigious Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, something that might have furthered his musical career.^[29] However, he began to gain more notice in the press, and the first public performance of a secular work, an overture performed in February 1818, received praise from the press in Vienna and abroad.^[30]

Schubert spent the summer of 1818 as music teacher to the family of Count Johann Karl Esterházy at their château in Zseliz (then in Hungary, now in Slovakia). His duties were relatively light (teaching piano and singing to the two daughters, Marie and Karoline), and the pay was relatively good. As a result, he happily continued to compose during this time. It may have been at this time that he wrote one of his now world-famous compositions, the Marche militaire No. 1 in D major. Marie and Karoline both being his piano students, and the original score of "Marche Militaire" being a piano duet, lend credence to this view. On his return from Zseliz, he took up residence with his friend Mayrhofer.^[29] The respite at Zseliz led to a succession of compositions for piano duet.^[31]