The greatest miller, greatest winter traveller - Fischer-Dieskau

I will never forget the first time I heard a recording of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (28 May 1925 – 18 May 2012.)  It was September 2001 in Edmonton, Alberta.  I was sitting in Dr. Michael Roeder's music history class. It was 9:00 am and it was my very first class of my undergraduate degree.  I did not know a soul.  The professor smiled at us, introduced himself, and then pressed play on the stereo. (No, we didn't have iPods back then.) 

What I heard were the first few gorgeous bars of Schubert's "An die Musik" sung by Fischer-Dieskau, accompanied by Gerald Moore on piano.  Not a pin dropped in the room. Some of the vocalists in the class knew the piece but at age 18, this was the first time I had ever encountered this music. 

After we heard the piece once, the professor handed us the words to Schrober's poem that serve as the text for this lied. I wanted to create a reasonable impression on my new classmates so I fought the tears.  Who was this amazing voice?  Our professor assured us that his diction was simply perfect and that his interpretations of Schubert were simply the benchmark.

In that first year music history course, we studied other popular songs from Schubert.  I'll never forget how genuinely frightened we were of Der Erlkönig! Fischer-Dieskau magically painted for us the different characters in the song and engaged us in the tragic plot.

My love of Schubert lieder has continued ever since that class.  Each time I discover a song of Schubert's that I love, I turn to Fischer-Dieskau first. It is not that I do not love the work of other great singers (Ian Bostridge, Michael Schade, for example.)  Simply put, however, Fischer-Dieskau has been a servant of these great works and communicates their essence to the listener with such conviction.

When I awoke this morning, my heart sank to read the news that this great artist had left us at age 86.  Multiple hommages and blog posts already pourred in my Twitter (@Westjet007) and Facebook feeds.  To be honest, I have not read one of them yet.  I have, however, provided links to them at the end of this post.

I will leave you with the most heart-breaking Schubert I know.  This is Des Baches Wiegenlied from Die Schoene Muellerin.  It is the last song in that cycle.  The little brook sings a lullaby for the heart-broken miller who drowns himself in the river after being rejected by the woman whom he loves.  

Gute Nacht, gute Nacht!

Bis alles wacht,

Schlaf aus deine Freude, schlaf aus dein Leid!

Der Vollmond steigt,

Der Nebel weicht,

Und der Himmel da oben, wie ist er so weit!

Good night, good night,
Until all awake,
Sleep out your joy, sleep out your pain!
The full moon climbs,
The mist fades away,
and the heavens above, how wide they are!