I had the highest expectations of this DVD - two of my all-time
favourite Schubert interpreters recorded together at the 1991
Schubertiade in one of the composer’s two masterpiece
song cycles. The earlier release on TDK (TVCODSM) had
earned encomia elsewhere and Fischer-Dieskau’s 3-CD recording
of the three great song cycles, Die Schöne Müllerin,
Die Winterreise and Schwanengesang, with Gerald
Moore on DG (477 7956) is one of the great bargains of
the catalogue.
In the event, if we had a Disappointment of the Month
category, this would fit it. I can just understand why some
reviewers have rated it highly - there are traces of the old,
great, voice and interpretation there and it’s apparent
that the two performers gelled in their enjoyment of working
together. For me, however, the 66-year-old voice had simply
become too wavery and lacking in dynamic range and all the facial-
and body-language which Fischer-Dieskau employs not only cannot
compensate but look rather pathetic. Whenever he sings war
es also gemeint? - was it fated to be so? - I can’t
help thinking how time and fate rob us all of our powers, even
the greatest among us.
As Anne Ozorio writes in her review
of that TDK release, it seems almost cruel to listen to this
performance critically but that’s what you expect us to
do. The audience react rapturously, but there’s surely
an element of the Emperor’s New Clothes or a memory of
better times in their response. Writing about another Arthaus
DVD release of this recording with Die Winterreise, Kirk
McElhearn thought that the merits of the earlier recording of
Winterreise atoned for the shortcomings of Die Schöne
Müllerin - review
- but he seems to have been little more impressed by the latter
than Anne Ozorio and myself.
I turned for reassurance of how well Fischer-Dieskau had once
performed this work not to the DG set but to an EMI recording,
again with Gerald Moore in 1961, still available as an EMI Great
Recording - review
- and recently reissued less expensively on EMI Masters 0852092,
available to stream from Naxos Music Library if you wish to
check it out. See Bargain of the Month review
of an earlier EMI Masters release, with a different cover and
number; it’s hard to keep up with the speed with which
EMI have been reshuffling their catalogue recently. Ironically,
the seeds of the destruction of the great voice are heard even
at its height in the microscopically slight but attractive waveriness
that made the singer so distinctive that one has only to listen
to a few seconds of any of his recordings to recognise him.
I understand that Austrian Television (ÖRF) arranged to
record the occasion only at the last moment; having intended
only to film just a news item, they hastily drafted in an extra
camera. The result, considering the circumstances, does justice
to the occasion and it would be easy to disregard the shortcomings
of 21-year-old technology if the performance had warranted it.
As it is, though one can adjust the 4:3 picture to 16:9 without
distortion on most televisions, it’s not possible to compensate
for the grainy picture, with the occasional banding that used
to be common on VCR and the disconcerting impression that the
lighting was changing from minute to minute.
Stay with one of Fischer Dieskau’s recordings of this
cycle from better times with Gerald Moore. Alto have recently
reissued (the 1951?) recording, plus five Lieder, on ALC1207
and that 1951 version, without the fillers, is also available
on Regis RRC1383 - review
- both at budget price. Otherwise, the EMI Masters is available
for around £8 and the 3-CD DG set costs around £16.
It’s on special offer from one dealer at the moment for
£10.56. Then there’s the Hyperion recording of the
cycle on which Fischer Dieskau reads the prologue and epilogue
(as he does on the EMI recording) while Ian Bostridge and Graham
Johnson perform the music: CDA30020 or CDJ33025
around £8 or download in mp3 or lossless from Hyperion
- see October 2010 Download Roundup.
Brian Wilson
Masterwork Index: Die
Schöne Müllerin
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Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone); Andras Schiff (piano) 
107269 [83:00] 