Fischer-Dieskau’s musical heritage finds a final home
mainThe great baritone’s library – his books, scores, thousands of recordings, his grand piano – have been transferred in 20 crates to the Berlin State Library. The legacy, announced by the library today, includes signed photographs of Arnold Schoenberg, Leonard Bernstein and more.
The bequest was made by the singer’s widow, Julia Varady. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau spent his entire working life in Berlin. He died in May 2012, aged 87, on a Bavarian mountain.
Two errors:
1: Fischer-Dieskau spent a considerable proportion of his time working with the Munich Opera, which is where he met Julia Varady.
2: He did not die on a Bavarian mountain. Because of their involvement with the Munich Opera, he and Julia built a house in the nearby village of Berg. While “Berg” is German for “mountain”, the village is on the shores of Lake Starnberg.
Thank you. There is no Munich Opera. He sang, in his early and middle years, at the Bavarian State Opera.
Surely Norman you’re splitting hairs?
He didn’t “build” a house… he just bought a house (like anybody else) and moved in. Clearly having an artists studio (he liked to dabble) in a basement isn’t an ideal location! This was a mainly holiday home with the main house of many years being maintained in Berlin.
I think the comment about him dying on a Bavarian mountain is a bit of poetic licence. As far as I know he died in his sleep aged 86 at which age he was quite frail, at his comfortable villa nestling on the shoreline of the Starnberg See in the town of Berg. A beautiful lake residential area and national park for the well heeled of Munich featuring occasionally as the backdrop in THE world famous Inspektor Derrick TV police procedural series