Brahms: Wie bist du, meine Königin Op. 32 No. 9

These releases from the archives of the RIAS and the Sender Freies Berlin document the unequalled quantitative and qualitative spectrum which baritone Fischer-Dieskau acquired during the five decades of his career.

They offer a fascinating insight into the breadth of his repertoire as well as his artistic approach, with which he maintained a careful balance of development and continuity until the end. These recordings – spanning Beethoven’s sacred songs Op. 48 of 1806, through Schumann, Brahms, Mahler and Reger, to Heinrich Sutermeister’s expressive psalm setting of 1948 – demonstrate the essential Fischer-Dieskau.

Not only do they document the artistic partnership with pianists such as Hertha Klust, Daniel Barenboim, Cord Garben, Aribert Reimann and Tamás Vásáry, but also the delightful collaboration with the organist Ulrich Bremsteller.

Furthermore, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau can be heard together with his wife and musical partner, Julia Varady. This is a documentary edition both in the sense of a historic and an artistic legacy: it reveals the riches of lieder from the last two centuries which Fischer-Dieskau, in his role of musical chronicler, made accessible for the present age; and it is an impressive record of an incomparable interpretational art, according to which word and music were always treated and realised as a unit.

Hans Hotter was one of the major artists signed to EMI by the legendary record producer Walter Legge in Vienna as soon as the Second World War ended and one of his first recordings for the company was the Brahms Requiem under Herbert von Karajan, an extract from which is included in this set. This 6-CD set is devoted mainly to German Lieder and includes an impressive collection of songs recorded when Hotter was in his prime and generally accompanied by Gerald Moore. A number of tracks in this set are appearing in stereo for the first time on CD; their only previous stereo issue was on a local Angel LP in the USA.The two excerpts from Die Meistersinger are incomplete because the recordings were not released at the time they were made (1948) and some of the original 78 rpm masters had not survived by the time the items were issued on LP for the first time in 1982.

The death has recently been announced of one of the greatest singers of the 20th century, the German baritone Dieterich Fisher-Dieskau. Over a career spanning almost half a century Fisher-Dieskau performed all over the world with most of the major conductors, orchestras, and opera companies. He was particularly renowned for his interpretations of the lieder repertoire, especially the songs of Schubert. This 10CD set which was originally released in July 2011 covers a wide range of his performances in all areas of the vocal art.