reviews

MARTIN FISCHER-DIESKAU is the son of baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and cellist Irmgard Poppen.

In 1974 he started his career leading a production of Haydn's "Il mondo della luna" in his native Berlin at the age of nineteen. He thereafter studied violin, piano and conducting at the "Universität der Künste" Berlin as well as Italian Literature and Musicology at the "Freie Universität" Berlin. He was the German Music Council's top prize winner twice in 1976 and 1977 which led to some first invitations to leading orchestras in Germany and brought him into contact with Seiji Ozawa who invited him as a recipient of the much sought after Leonard Bernstein fellowship program in Tanglewood, USA in 1978 and again in 1988. Back in 1978 it was Antal Doráti who engaged him as Assistant Conductor with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and advised him to return to Europe after two seasons in order to follow the steps of so many illustrious conductors of the past: becoming a repetiteur and "Kapellmeister" in various opera houses. His positions included Augsburg, Aachen, Hagen and finally Stuttgart and Bern, where he served as Principal Conductor from 1990 till 1994 conducting a wide range of Contemporary, Russian and Italian repertoire. He also led productions at the "San Carlo" in Naples and the "Regio" in Torino and became a frequent guest at international festivals such as the Helsinki, Granada and Berlin Festivals.

Meanwhile his work on the concert platform had established Martin Fischer-Dieskau as a conductor of all important British orchestras; he was invited to Japan's NHK as well as to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Worldwide the number of orchestras he has conducted is approaching 100.

As Principal Conductor of the Canadian KW Symphony from 2000 to 2004 he was able to make important contributions for the augmentation of the standard repertoire and opened the concert hall to new audiences. With the KW Symphony he also inaugurated the first German-Canadian Festival in Toronto in 2002.

Martin Fischer-Dieskau records for the Marco Polo and BIS labels, holds a professorship with the "Hochschule der Künste" in Bremen and established his own television series introducing young musicians for the German "ARD" TV channel.

In 2005 he was first introduced to Taiwan's classical music scene conducting and lecturing at the NTNU University in Taipei, later resuling in a concert engagement with the Taipei Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.in 2006. That same year he helped inaugurate the first season of the newly created Boca Raton Symphonia in Florida and was immediately invited for a return visit which attracted more than 15.000 spectators in an open-air concert event. The following seasons brought him back to Israel, France, the Netherlands and the United States.

In 2007 the musicians of the Taipei Symphony Orchestra elected him as their principal conductor for the 2008/09 season during which he presented 7 exquisitly programmed concerts with music ranging from Rameau to Glière, Blacher and the foremost contemporary composers of Taiwan today. He also conducted a fully staged double bill opera night with works by Puccini and Wolf-Ferrari to great international critical acclaim.

One of the upcoming highlights in Martin Fischer-Dieskau's schedule will be an extended tour of the Netherlands with the Holland Symfonia as well as return visits to Finland and the Czech Republic in 2010.

Martin Fischer-Dieskau begins the year 2011 with a series of 9 concerts at the helm of the Noord Nederlands Orkest (NNO)in 8 different Dutch cities to great critical and public acclaim.

1. Concert for Lidice
2. Humperdink: Moorish Rhapsody/Sleeping Beauty
3. Around The World In 80 Minutes
4. IPPNW-Benefizkonzert 1992 CD #1
5. IPPNW-Benefizkonzert 1992 CD #5
6. IPPNW-Benefizkonzert 1994 CD #40

Profiles

1. Interview-European Cultural News
2. Taipei Symphony Orchestra will be led by a new Music Director
3. Love at First Measure ...
4. The conduct of an anti-maestro
5. Im Kochtopf Frau Bundespräsident
6. Ein Dirigent sollte Persönlichkeit, Witz und Charakter haben
7. Martin Fischer-Dieskau, serviteur de la musique
8. Meet the maestro
9. Famous musical name with a common touch
10. New Baton for Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony
11. Not like father, like son
12. Martin Fischer Dieskau: ‹‹La voz humana directa al corazón››
13. Stern der Woche

Reviews

1. Taipei Times
2. Taipei Times
3. Perfect bond closes series
4. Conductor makes grand entrance with 'new' Wagner
5. L'Arménie à l'honneur avec un concert symphonique
6. Un pianiste arménien éblouissant
7. New conductor has symphony soaring
8. Sun Sentinel and Palm Beach Post
9. Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony serves up musical feast in Guelph
10. Symphony performs a real Masterpiece
11. Fischer-Dieskau Inspires Symphony To A Heartfelt Performance
12. Alltag in einem Festival
13. Voces de lujo
14. Las divas Ricciarelli y Obraztsova retornaron al Festival de Granada
15. RPO/Fischer-Dieskau
16. Symphony tackles difficult program with panache

Opera

1. Climats pucciniens
2. Mozart Die Zauberflöte
3. Opera Theatre offers a very merry Mozart
4. Ein schillerndes Jugendwerk
5. Gespielte Grobheit
6. Die Komödie von Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorf
7. Mit viel Mut zum Risiko

08.10.2010

Finland: Jyväskylä Sinfonia & Martin Fischer-Dieskau
"In advance, the expectations towards the evening's concert were high: in the programme, there were the names of a widely known soloist and a widely reputed conductor whose last visit one year ago in Jyväskylä left a positive impression. Therefore, it was not a surprise that the lobby of the city theatre was full of cheerful buzz of conversation and happy spirits before the concert’s beginning on Wednesday evening. The soul and beautiful, deep and impressive tones of Russian music were reached when the conductor Martin Fischer-Dieskau got off the ground in his interpretation of Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition Suite [...]
[...] The Pictures at an Exhibition Suite, this time in Giuseppe Becce's orchestration, which is practically never played in the concert halls, changed the concertös entity which was a welcome enhancement to the concert’s drama curve. The special acknowledgements go to the percussions and brass section whose praiseworthy contribution and energy deepened the interpretation ever more. Inspired by the evening I play now Mussorgsky even on my laptop."
Elina Lillstrang, Keskisuomalainen Newspaper

23.4.2010

Strasbourg: Concert OPS Benfeld
OPS Strasbourg

15-03-2010

With powerful accents, agitated rhythms and broadly spun out lines Fischer-Dieskau achieved much drama and stirring expression. […] Fischer-Dieskau vigorously stoked up a fire in the orchestra. Winand van de Kamp, Haarlems Dagblad, 15-3-2010

Chinese Biography .pdf

Japanese Biography .pdf