Paintings by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau: Portraits

"Painting fascinated me from early on. I was encouraged by the father of my first piano teacher, Friedrich Seyer, whose huge Botticelli copies looked down on me during my lessons, and he enticed me to imitate them". ---Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau One of the things that Fischer-Dieskau enjoys doing most is painting. He has been drawing and sketching since childhood but only began painting seriously in 1960 after viewing an exhibition of the works of the Swiss painter Paul Klee. He began with portraits so that is the focus of my video. "Since my way of singing Lieder is also concentrated on the art of portrayal, it seemed only right to make this the main platform of my second profession. I longed to express that unconscious emotion within me in a figurative way". ---Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau "Seen from a technical point of view, his portraits are distinguished by a very precise awareness of line, so that they retain the action of movement and gestures, just as if they were frozen movementThis propensity for line has perhaps really got something to do with music". ---Elmar Budde as quoted in the biography of Fischer-Dieskau by Hans A. Neunzig. Music: Franz Schubert (1797-1828) Symphony No. 5 in B-flat minor, D.485: 4th movement, Allegro vivace New Philharmonia Orchestra Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau cond. Recorded 1973