Winterreise Wednesdays! (No. 2: A Fischer-Dieskau Mini-Retrospective)

Schubert: Die Winterreise. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone)
Gerald Moore (piano), EMI/Warner 1955
Jörg Demus (piano) DG 1966
Murray Perahia (piano) Sony 1990

[@juancarlosdosgarcia]

No matter how many times Fischer Dieskau recorded Winterreise because he gave the chance to Demus, Barenboim, Pollini, Brendel , Perahia to play the piano part. And the piano role is essential. Winterreise is not just words with piano accompaniment.

[@LeonFleisherFan]

Fischer-Dieskau made two recordings with Gerald Moore for EMI, one in 1955 and another in 1962, and the latter happens to be my favorite of all, phenomenally persuasive story-telling, truly devastating, and he was still in great voice.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Oh good. Another one!

[@jaykauffman4775]

Yes the early 60 s is my fav along with the 62 Schone Mullerin which IMHO is one of the greatest lieder recordings ever made

[@tommynielsen7163]

The 1948 recording on Audite is something else, aged 23 the timbre much darker than it ultimately became and fabulous straightforward singing.

[@TilenUdovic]

Dear Dave, thank you for making some (more) Lieder videos in the last weeks and boy was I excited when you announced Winterreise Wednesdays! I appreciate these (and all the others) a lot. Thank you and greetings from Slovenia.

[@Fafner888]

This is the greatest performance of Von der Schönheit I ever heard, bravo Dave.

[@LeotheK]

It has been very wonderful going through Winterreise recordings. It has been awhile since I did this. This is the perfect guide. Thanks!!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

You're very welcome!

[@nk-gp1ml]

Thanks Dave for allowing us to wallow in Winterreises on Wednesdays. My first and also favourite Fischer-Dieskau version is that with Barenboim.

[@christopherwilliams9270]

I admire the objectivity you bring to this comparison. While matters of interpretation can be subjective, the voice was simply what the voice was at different stages of his career. He was always intelligent and sensitive in his approach to words, but early on his voice was meltingly beautiful--and at the end he had to rely on mannerisms, though he was always interesting. To my taste the Demus recording and the second Moore recording (for DG) strike the ideal balance.

[@jaykauffman4775]

You really had to experience him live. I saw him do this work in Philadelphia in the 60s and the effect on the audience was palpable. There was about 30 seconds of silence at the end because no one wanted to break the spell. No encores of course

[@johnhoie-hj7cg]

I loved Fischer-Dieskau without loving the sound. You pointed out his diction, and I also think his artistry was exceptional. His voice always sounded dry to me, but I realize now I have only heard him post-1965. Need to track down earlier performances.

[@Pe13123]

What a pity that Fritz Wunderlich never recorded "Die Winterreise". He had the right voice for it.

[@fuguetaboudit]

Thank you for championing this work. I've attended 2 performances of it this past year and have come to really appreciate it. The first was on a program with Brooklyn Rider & Anne Sofie von Otter in an arrangement for string quartet. They interpolated 3 selections with movements of "Death and the Maiden." That really made me consider Schubert's work in a new light. The other was of the complete cycle, and I loved it immensely, but it was a lot to take in one go. A perfect reason to listen to this series. Ve vill avait and view all Winterreise Wednesday videos voraciously! (And any alliterative alternatives as I love your channel as a whole).

[@fabiopaolobarbieri2286]

1) Every singer alive wants to do Winterreise if they feel up to it. In spite of its utter despair, it's such a great part, like one of the greatest opera parts. 2) Fischer-Dieskau haters are very strange people. I remember one of them saying that, in a hypothetic Harry Potter opera, F-D should be given the part of Professor Snape, because his voice was nasty and poisonous enough to go with the character's acidic personality!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Yeah, that's nuts.

[@JackBurttrumpetstuff]

I have the Demus and the Brendel (Phillips) from 1985. Both are wonderful. My favorite DFD is his 6 disc Schumann box on DG, with Eschenbach. Recorded in the 70’s , his voice is in wonderful condition. For me, Schumann Lieder fit the DFD ‘Treatment” (to borrow your Karajan term) much better than Schubert. There is a wider emotional and musical range in Schumann, for both the piano and the voice. These recordings are just about ideal.

[@jonathangoodman2636]

As a Lieder singer myself, I never imagined DFD 1966 moving off my top 3 list. Well, Dave, you did just that, after I bought your top pick (Roman Trekel; Naxos). What a voice, used to perfection, true and fully the character! Thank you.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Wow, thanks!

[@mirkoeinhorn09]

His DG recording with Moore is the one to go for. There he reached the perfect balance between voice and interpretation. The earlier one with Demus was leaning towards the voice, the later with Barenboim towards the Interpretation with the first signs of his voice breaking.

[@walterwinterfeldt3232]

Thank you, Dave, always illuminating and humorous! Another great live Winterreise is FD with Maurizio Pollini from 1978 on Orfeo. Where did you hear that FD owned Orfeo? That's a new one for me. Maybe he owned some stock in the company?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

No, he owned the company, at least originally.

[@arnausubiracanaleta3162]

It is not my intention to change the subject of the video but it just ocurred to me that, since we are speaking about lieder, maybe it would be interesting to speak about the Hugo Wolf recordings of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Fürtwangler, I always enjoyed them and it would be nice to know your opinion on them.

[@michaelhartman8724]

Unless there's a recording of DFD singing this thing off the back of a horse drawn wagon + piano for his Wehrmacht colleagues, the earliest recordings that pop up on Amazon is 1948 with Klaus Billing and 1952 with Hermann Reutter. Project Muse as reference claims he did 33 recordings of this.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Not really. That's how many performances have been preserved, but they weren't all formal recordings.

[@michaelhartman8724]

That's still a whole lot of breath expended on Schubert!

[@jamesedwards9690]

Hi Dave, are you going to talk about Zender's arrangement of Winterreise?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Maybe.

[@murraylow4523]

@@DavesClassicalGuide @jamesedwards9690 I saw a performance of that recently in London and it was arresting but wasn’t sure I ultimately liked it. Pregardien recorded it, as has his son, Julian. In fact C Pregardien is an interesting contrast with Fischer-Dieskau because although he recorded Winterreise 4 times (to my knowledge) it was each time with a different sort of accompaniment. Fortepiano (with Staier), modern piano (with Gees), wind and accordion ensemble (with Pentaendre) and the Zender re-composition with small orchestra. Interesting strategy to get around the repetition compulsion with this work!

[@richardzuelch375]

Thanks for this short review (personally, I think the 1965 Fischer-Dieskau/Demus recording is probably the best one (as others do). Two questions: why don't you like Kathleen Ferrier (as you mentioned in passing in a previous video)? And are you going to review Haydn's complete baryton trio recordings box on Brilliant Classics? Love your very informative videos!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

When she sings well, I like her. I dislike the aura of worshipful sanctity that surrounds her.

[@richardzuelch375]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Well, of course she gets the "sympathy vote" because she died so young. Still, I think she was one of the 20th century's best contraltos.

[@lunaray1986]

Why not do Müller Mittwochs and cover both cycles?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Clever, but too late!

[@rameau6577]

When did his barking phase begin?

[@grantparsons6205]

Schwarzkopf: "One should come away from a good lieder recital a changed person." I assume she was referring to the audience ...

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I don't know. She changed into a Nazi and back again. I wonder which recitals did that?

[@grantparsons6205]

@@DavesClassicalGuide she could also be kind & generous and very good fun...