TOP Laureate Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

The 14th

Laureate

Music

Dietrich
Fischer-Dieskau

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was born in Berlin in 1925. For most of his career,he divided his time fairly equally between opera and concerts. He sang Verdi and Puccini roles as readily as Mozart,Strauss and Wagner,and sang in many contemporary operas as well. Although probably most well known for his performances of traditional lieder,Fischer-Dieskau's dedicated commitment to contemporary music is noteworthy. He participated in the first performances of works by Benjamin Britten,Samuel Barber,Hans Werner Henze,Ernst Krenek,Witold Lutoslawski,Siegfried Matthus,Winfried Zillig,Gottfried von Einem. The precisely articulated accuracy of his performances,in which text and music are presented as equal partners,established standards that endure today. He is considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.

Biography

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was born in Berlin in 1925. He learned to play the piano from his mother and continued to study piano throughout his school years. He started singing as a child and began formal voice lessons at sixteen. In 1945,he was captured in Italy and spent two years as a prisoner of war. Even during this time he somehow continued his musical studies.

Fischer-Dieskau’s professional career as a singer began in 1947 in Badenweiler when he sang Brahm’s German Requiem,without any rehearsal as a last-minute substitute for a singer who could not perform. He gave his first lieder recital in Leipzig in the fall of the same year,and followed it soon afterward with a highly successful first concert at Berlin's Titania-Palace. He garnered great critical acclaim for his interpretations and for the almost infinite variety of colors and shadings in his voice.

For most of his career,Fischer-Dieskau divided his time fairly equally between opera and concerts,and sang a great variety of opera roles on the stage. His opera career spanned from 1948 to 1983 and was centered mainly at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin and at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. He sang Verdi and Puccini's roles as readily as he did Mozart,Strauss and Wagner’s,and sang in many contemporary operas as well,including leading roles in Henze's Elegy for Young Lovers and Reimann's Lear. Fischer-Dieskau's dedicated commitment to contemporary music is noteworthy,and led also to his participation in the first performances of works by many other composers,including Benjamin Britten,Samuel Barber,Ernst Krenek,Witold Lutoslawski,Siegfried Matthus,Winfried Zillig,Gottfried von Einem.

Fischer-Dieskau sang regularly at the summer festivals in Bayreuth and Salzburg(he made his Salzburg concert debut in 1951 with Mahler's Songs of a Wayfarer under Wilhelm Furtwangler); had guest engagements in Vienna,London and Hamburg; and appeared in opera with the Deutsche Oper Berlin on its early visits to Japan. The precisely articulated accuracy of his performances,in which text and music are presented as equal partners,established standards that endure today.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Since his retirement in 1992,he has been active as a teacher,conductor,and author.

Chronology

1925
Born in Berlin
1942
Vocal Study with Hermann Weissenborn at Academy of Music,Berlin
First public recital with Schubert's Winterreise
1945-47
POW with the Americans in North Italy
1947
First concerts,e.g. Brahms's German Requiem
1948
Opera debut in Verdi's Don Carlos
1951
Debut at the Salzburg festival
1954
Debut at the Bayreuth Festival in Wieland Wagner's Tannhäuser
1957
First Falstaff,Berlin
1963
First tour of Japan with opera in the Nissei Theater and lieder recitals in Kyoto
1970-71
Recording Schubert Lieder for the male voice,with Gerald Moore
1971
Auf den Spuren der Schubert-Lieder published
1973
First recording as a conductor with the New Philharmonic Orchestra in London
1978
First performance of Witold Lutoslawski's The Space of Sleep
1980
First Exhibitions of his paintings in Bamberg
1983
Begins teaching as Professor at Academy of Fine Art
1987
First performance of Ysang Yun's Fifth Symphony
1991
First public performance of Aribert Riemann's Shine and Dark
1992
Public reading in Berlin and last lieder recitals in Paris,Tokyo and others
1993
Retires from singing
2003
Awarded the Praemium Imperiale Prize for Music,Japan Art Association,Tokyo
2012
Died May 18 in Bavaria,Germany
  • As a conductor in 1970

  • At the 85th anniversary concert

  • The Tour with Sviatoslav Richter in 1977

  • At the villa near Lake Starnberg

  • At the villa near Lake Starnberg

  • At the villa near Lake Starnberg

As a conductor in 1970
By courtesy of Dietrich Fischer- Dieskau

At the 85th anniversary concert of Carnegie Hall with Menuhin, Rostropovich and Bernstein, New York,1975
By courtesy of Dietrich Fischer- Dieskau

The Tour with Sviatoslav Richter in 1977
By courtesy of Dietrich Fischer- Dieskau

At the villa near Lake Starnberg
The Sankei Shimbun 2002

At the villa near Lake Starnberg
©The Sankei Shimbun 2002

At the villa near Lake Starnberg
©The Sankei Shimbun 2002