German baritone Benjamin Appl was on track to become a banker when he applied to join one of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s public masterclasses in 2009. The legendary singer gave the young Appl a chance and, struck by his talent and desire to learn, invited him to become his pupil—his last, as it transpired. Their relationship deepened over the remaining four years of Fischer-Dieskau’s life, setting the foundations upon which Appl has built his reputation as one of the world’s leading interpreters of German lieder and art song. Hommage à Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau offers Appl’s heartfelt tribute to his teacher, released to coincide with the centenary of his birth in May 1925.
“Fischer-Dieskau had the most beautiful voice,” Benjamin Appl tells Apple Music Classical. “He was also very intelligent and incredibly hardworking. He was great with languages and had an amazing capacity to remember all the details—but he was also full of emotions. So that is how I’d describe him quickly. On the other hand, one should never forget that, despite all the troubles and struggles he had, he arrived at the right time, when in Germany there were almost no singers left after the Second World War. Suddenly this young person came who was not actively involved in politics before the war, who represented a new Germany and was able to revolutionise the way of performing and programming songs.”
Fischer-Dieskau’s early “troubles and struggles” included the death of his father, who was an accomplished amateur musician, traumatic wartime experiences on the Russian Front as a soldier drafted into the Wehrmacht, and the murder of his disabled brother Martin, victim of the Nazis’ euthanasia programme. Dietrich was most likely spared from death after being wounded by a grenade and withdrawn from frontline combat, and by his subsequent capture in Italy by American forces. As a prisoner-of-war, he used his already well-developed vocal skills to entertain his comrades.
“I think those early years shaped him as a human, and also as a musician,” notes Appl. “When you listen to his first recordings from the late 1940s, the voice often sounds so mature, and his artistry, his artistic choices and his interpretations are also ripe. He lost several years of life to the war; on the other hand, he experienced so much during that time. I think that's why when he started his career, singing Schubert’s Winterreise for example, he was already a made artist.” Fischer-Dieskau, he adds, was open to new technology and loved the microphone. “I think that was very clever of him compared to other singers, who saw that as the enemy. He embraced it.”
Hommage à Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau reflects Appl’s enduring affection for his teacher. The album’s tracklist marks chapters in the singer’s life: for instance, Fischer-Dieskau learned Schubert’s “An die Musik”, and first performed Sinding’s “Sylvelin” and the operetta number “Ich bin nur ein armer Wandergesell” (“I’m just a poor wandering journeyman”) while interned in an Allied prison camp; his close friendship with Benjamin Britten is echoed in “Proverb III” from Songs and Proverbs of William Blake, and in “Hörnersang”, Fischer-Dieskau’s compelling German translation of “Bugles sang” from the composer’s War Requiem.
Other tracks suggest emotions associated with the death of his mother (Eisler’s “Mutterns Hände”) and his first wife (Schubert’s “Süßes Begräbnis” (“Sweet Burial”), aspects of his three subsequent marriages (Schubert’s “Liebhaber in allen Gestalten”—“Lover in all guises”), and the birth of his three sons (Bruno Walter’s “Des Kindes Schlaf”—“The sleeping child”). There’s room, too, for world premiere recordings of pieces by Fischer-Dieskau’s father, Albert, and his older brother, Klaus, a professional musician and prolific composer, and songs associated with Appl’s experience of studying with him, including a haunting performance of Wolf’s “Sterb’ ich, so hüllt in Blumen meine Glieder” (“If I should die, then shroud my limbs with flowers”).
Appl’s album is enhanced by his in-depth biographical essay, richly illustrated with photographs, ephemera and artworks, and flavoured with extensive quotes from Fischer-Dieskau’s personal correspondence. The latter, which reveal the singer’s complex character, required Appl to take an objective view of his mentor. “When you have the opportunity to look into some very confidential letters, then you have another element which you have to respect, particularly with a person like Fischer-Dieskau who was so private and kept the publicity far away from everything that happened in his life.”
Appl’s imaginative choice of songs radiates out from Fischer-Dieskau’s core repertoire to embrace pieces that he never performed or recorded, Korngold’s “Liebesbriefchen” (“Love letter”) and Clara Schumann’s “Liebst du um Schönheit” (“If you love for beauty”) exquisite among them. “Of course, one could have chosen his favourite Schubert songs and so on,” he notes. “But then, you have to ask yourself, why should you record something if he recorded it to such a beautiful extent that it’s hard to match? I wanted to create an album to honour him. It was important to focus on the repertoire which shaped him and accompanied his life. So certain songs on the album are related to music he performed himself. But then there are others which comment on his life and give an emotional resemblance of a particular moment.”
