Albert Dietrich Fischer was born in 1925 in Berlin to Albert Fischer, a school principal, and Theodora (née Klingelhoffer) Fischer, 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 served in Grenadier Regiment 146 of the
65th Infantry Division south of Bologna in the winter of 1944–45 and entertained his comrades at soldiers' evenings behind the lines. 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 a physically and intellectually impaired brother, Martin, who was sent to an institution by the
Nazi regime and
starved to death. Their family home was destroyed during the war.
Singing career In 1947, Fischer-Dieskau returned to Germany, where he launched his professional career as a singer in
Badenweiler, singing in Brahms's
Ein Deutsches Requiem without any rehearsal. 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 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 (Bach's cantata
Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen), BWV 56, and 16 April (Brahms:
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
Abbey Road Studios in 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. They gave recitals together until Moore retired from public performance in 1967. They continued 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. 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),
Charles Ives,
Ernst Krenek,
Witold Lutosławski,
Siegfried Matthus,
Othmar Schoeck,
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. 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 Puccini's
Tosca (with
Birgit Nilsson), are not delivered by him with the same degree of effectiveness.) As conductor
Ferenc Fricsay put it, "I never dreamed I'd find an Italian
baritone in Berlin."
Retirement Fischer-Dieskau retired from opera in 1978, the year he recorded his final opera, Reimann's
Lear, which the composer had written at his suggestion. He retired from the concert hall as of New Year's Day, 1993, at age 67, and dedicated himself to conducting, teaching, (especially the interpretation of Lieder), painting and writing books. He still performed as a reciter, reading for example the letters of Strauss to
Hugo von Hofmannsthal (whose part was read by
Gert Westphal), for the
Rheingau Musik Festival in 1994; and both performing and recording Strauss's melodrama
Enoch Arden. He also became an honorary member of the
Robert Schumann Society.
Personal life In 1949, Fischer-Dieskau married the cellist ; they had three sons: Mathias (a stage designer),
Martin (a conductor), and (a cellist with the
Cherubini Quartet). Irmgard died in 1963 of complications following childbirth. Fischer-Dieskau was later married to the actress
Ruth Leuwerik, from 1965 to 1967, and Kristina Pugell, from 1968 to 1975. In 1977 he married the soprano
Júlia Várady. His older brother
Klaus Fischer-Dieskau was a Berlin choral director who conducted for Fischer-Dieskau several times, including in his only recording of a passion by
Heinrich Schütz in 1961. Fischer-Dieskau smoked during a large part of his career. In an interview with
B.Z.-News aus Berlin in 2002 he said, "I quit smoking 20 years ago. I smoked for 35 years, and then stopped in a single day." On 18 May 2012, Fischer-Dieskau died in his sleep at his home in
Berg, Upper Bavaria, 10 days before his 87th birthday. ==Recognition==