Brahms - O Tod, wie bitter bist Du? Fischer-Dieskau

[P1B1U1H1]

This sounds like Brahms. Very interesting.

[donconhar]

incredible breath control....amazing.

[1Victorinus]

Absolutely sublime music given a sublime performance. Thanks for having the key in the visual score be the same as that in which DFD is singing.

[iHondeux]

This is magnificent, always moving <3

"How bitter death can seem, yet so fitting.."

Beautiful!

[einherzundeineseele]

Liebe Barbara

Da hast Du aber eine exquisite Sammlung an wunderschönen Videos zusammengestellt, die mein Interesse geweckt haben.

Zum Beispiel Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Ehemann der Julia Varady.

Nun in deutsch, weil dazu die englische Sprache nicht reichen würde.

Herzlichst Alfred

[dabavog]

bravo

[TommyHaegin]

1:53... nobody can sing like this!!

[clarksc1988]

3:24 - 3:41

[TommyHaegin]

@clarksc1988 Simply sublime!

[clarksc1988]

3:24 - 3:41

[elegantanddying]

Do you have this score? I've got one but for Baryton.

[sirdavidrush1]

so beautiful

[kissthecamera]

Thanks for posting this BEAUTIFUL recording!

[DIEZAUBERFLOTEMENSCH]

i sing this tomorrow

[6134447]

Re: Archantivos: The facts are: Vivaldi was a priest; Monterverdi was a priest; Bach was a servant of Reformation; Zotán Kodály served God in the hard times of communism and so one. Dont forget, the concept of whole modern legal system of Western Democracy is based on spirit of Pentatecus.

[Russenliebchen]

Die künstlerische Perfektion der Darbietung hat etwas Gebieterisches

[jewish1972]

was ist "Gebieterisches", hat etwas mit "bieten" zu tun?

[wolkowy1]

Thank you for the uploading of this Lied with that wonderful performance, and thanks espec. for the detailed learned info.

[skiffman5889]

Fischer-Dieskau is a god....

[jewish1972]

no, he is a man, & already old, not many years more of life

[stevevandien]

Who is the accompanist? Gerald Moore or Jorg Demus?

[civileso]

It is Demus.

[mikejones1770]

brahms based his whole art on gods existence..he said in his famous quote that all his ideas come from god and his toil was making the final result worthy of the divine inspiration..he quoted john 14:12..this was to brahms the most important passage..brahms believed that jesus spirit could be realized through his music..not trusting organized religion..nevertheless brahms believed in jesus ..in fact another famous brahms qoute is that"an athiest has never produced a worthy work of art"

[jewish1972]

that last quote is discussible

[jpandyaraja]

ANY thing is "discussable,",,,but i wonder

why the ex-athiests soviets so lust for

European art...

[Archantivos]

Just because they believed in god, and produced beautiful works in 'his' name, does not mean they they produced beautiful works because of this. I think that, had these geniuses not believed in god, and been inspired anyway, the caliber of their music would have been the same. Just because the world during, what I consider to be, the truly musical eras was virtually entirely religious (In one form or another) does not mean that it is /because/ of the religion that the music was so wonderful.

[jewish1972]

but the music was inspired by the religion, false or not

[kourouyan]

You are big time WRONG!!! You have no clue what faith does to humans. It moves mountains. I wish you put your head together and find The Way. Put your arrogance aside, and read the Bible, study the Bible and you'll see the change to the better in your life.

[ufayad]

Dear Archantivos,

I believe you are right in at least one aspect of this topic: Music doesn't happen BECAUSE of religion. However, being a composer myself, I think I can say that inspiration for writing can come from several different places. This includes one's personal relationship or feelings toward God.

And, considering how much a part of life The Bible was in Europe in those days, its not unreasonable to say that many composers then (and still now) looked to God as major inspiration.

[kelseyagibs]

@Archantivos Brahms did not write this because of a religious inclination. This was written in the two months leading up to the death of the woman he had loved for 40 or so years, Clara Schumann. He chose biblical text because it suited the mood of the piece, not the other way around.

[thereisonlyonething]

the atheist community back then was probably cut from a much different cloth than the atheist community today.

[stybboon]

have u the second song from the 4 brahms with him ? i cannot find it ...

[elfpix]

Little shaky there at the start but still Brahms' greatest work sung by the greatest singer of such things.

That non-believer knew his sources. You have to dig deeply to find this in the Apocrypha.

[monster0129]

Thanks so much for doing this! I get to learn a new piece without even having to root through my mother's music books!

Weird at 1.54 the key change doesnt register for a while...confused me for a few seconds.

Love Fischer Dieskau.

Thanks again!!!

[crzyHiPpQ]

I love this. I have a handwritten copy of the 4 songs. It was handwritten in Germany by a company by the name of Maximilian Gesellschaft. It is #4 of an unknown number. It is all in German. It was made in 1939 for what I believe an annual celebration for Maximilian Gesellschaft. Anyway, it is all handmade. the paper is handmade, its pretty amazing. I obtained it from my grandfather. It is a beautiful piece.

[3fGilchrist]

listen to the chords that define the chaconne of the last movement of Brahms' fourth symphony here at the beginning of the Lied

[lamsauping]

thx u posting

[skiffman5889]

One day I wish I could sing like that.....I hope.... Amazing

[atomkraftteddy]

Very Good! Keep up the good work.

[McCoyTyner]

Brilliant idea!

Please keep doing things like this.

[InspectorRemorse]

You rule for doing these videos.

[svion]

Brahms is my favorite composer. His works contains such beauty and yet a sort of constant sorrow. Please listen to Alt Rhapsodie with Christa Ludwig!

[lamsauping]

thx for your posting

[escaelis]

Brahms is amazing. His harmonies are always evocative

[elias12186]

I really don't get these compositions. Specially Schubert's, they really elude me. I don't understand the appeal. What exactly is there to admire?

[civileso]

To me, it is impossible not to admire the intensity, sincerity, depth of emotion, insight, and the reflectiveness that comes through in romantic German lieder, especially in Schubert's lieder.. These art songs are decidedly not for easy listening, I admit that.. In general, there are a lot of disturbing thoughts, lots of aggressive, dissonant or anxiety ridden chords on piano parts and the poetry is almost always gloomy.

[civileso]

No simple beauty about them, nothing plainly pretty.. What is pretty in real life anyway? But when one wants to hear something more than merely pretty melodies, this genre has such an avalanche of emotion, enlightenement and beauty of true art which is born from real life and nurtures our lives in turn. They are windows to the souls of great musical genius who lived centuries ago..

[civileso]

I can sympathize with Brahms' grief over Clara Schumann's death, and sensing his own approaching death, and I admire how he makes peace with death at the end.. Death is not a pretty thought, so how else shoud this have been composed or performed? Perfect in every way!

[civileso]

I am sorry if I got carried away. This is how much I love these songs:)

[nickfox2]

Who is the pianist on this recording?

[civileso]

Jörg Demus. It is from the album Beethoven & Brahms Lieder

[nickfox2]

Thanks...a stupendous recording that had tears streaming down my face.

[civileso]

No problem.. I get the same way myself..

[MehdiCaps]

"I am sorry if I got carried away."

I love it when you get carried away like that, Eser. :)

This is very beautiful. Fischer-Dieskau has always been one of my favorite singers, especially in Schubert, Mahler and Wagner.

[civileso]

I'm glad you liked my ranting,LOL:) And of course Fischer-Dieskau; he is a legend!

[zinutile]

I for one, specialized in schubert's work in my university classical singing training. Schubert's work is so well written for the voice, it's hard to describe... His work is based (usually) on very beautiful poems, and tell stories like not many others can. Listen to "Der hirt auf dem Felsen", he wrote that while he was dying, it's incredible!

[CzarDodon]

My love story with lieder began from Winterreise, each one is a gem, put them all together and it's almost like an opera. I see you uploaded Mozart's Ch'io mi scordi di te, that's so close to the lied. Remember the text is vital, if you don't pay attention to the text you're missing half the 'fun'. I hope in these 7 months you've made some progress

BTW love Fischer Dieskau here

[elias12186]

IS it a lied? I haven't made any progress at all with them, but i suspect it is because I don't understand German. I guess I see what you mean that its sort of a lied, but it doesn't use only the piano! Its a wonderfully composed aria and the voice in lieds to me doesn't seem to jump around to much. In fact, in the last 7 months my main progress has been Handel :)

[CzarDodon]

It close because it's a distilled moment of poetry. It's is of course more sensual: a piano concerto with voice. If you don't understand German take the translation in hand while you listen. I've posted these Brahms songs with subtitles - I tried to modernize the language since the usual English biblical translations are too heavy for an athiest like me. The voice of Kipnis is more sensual than D F-D, less intellectual. Perhaps comparing these two fine interpreters can open doors for you.

[elias12186]

Thanks, I'll have to check them out. Fingers crossed that I will like them.

[CzarDodon]

I just checked if there were any other vintage performances on YT, but no Hans Hotter or Kathleen Ferrier! I have Hotter so I'll post him when I get a moment. If someone has Ferrier... please do us a favour :-)

[CzarDodon]

I've put the Ferrier recordings on TY too now, so give them a go, maube Ferrier's singular contralto (the rarest of all voice types) voice will speak more to you. Sometimes a particular interpreter is able to make somethig click in our hearts and minds, Ferrier has a mysterious something that cnnot be described.

[meltzerboy]

@CzarDodon I generally love Fischer-Dieskau's singing, even in certain opera performances. His lieder are incomparable, except perhaps for Gerard Souzay for men and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf for women. But somehow for this particular lied, I prefer Kipnis' more emotional reading. Thanks for posting DFD, however.

[CzarDodon]

@meltzerboy civileso posted this performance with DFD, I posted Kipnis. I like Dieskau as a lieder singer here and in Wolf in particular, at times especially when his voice was worn I feel he overdoes the interpretation in Schubert and doesn't let the music sing, I would say exactly the same about Schwartzkopf. In this Brahms I find Kipnis Ferrier and Hotter to be exceptional, but more recently Moll did a wonderful job, and live I once heard a splendid Fassbaender ... but thank Brahms

[mozartiikodesu]

Marvelous the reaction to the poetry of his Lied is very rare.

He is really one of the "Evangelists" of the Lieder in this century.

Why will feel a sense of relief?