A freebie to cheer us up

Deutsche Grammophon is paying tribute to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau by playing what appears to be a limitless selection of his songs on their little Internet radio.

I have not yet had the opportunity to explore this windfall in depth but it does look as if you get all of Schumann's "Dichterliebe," then all Schubert's "Die Schoene Muellerin," and then this gigantic set of Wolf's "Morike Lieder," and it goes from there. I do not want to see yet how many albums are included. I want to be surprised.

Tempting, you know, about midnight tonight, to settle in and sit for hours, listening and sipping whiskey.

At work tomorrow, or at school, as the case may be, someone will notice that you are out of it.

And you will truthfully explain, "I could not sleep because I was upset over losing Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau."

The DG tribute cheers me up a little because I have to say, the radio tributes to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau were not what I hoped and expected. I mean, for years, dreading his going, I at least assumed that when he did, the music world would grind to a halt. That did not happen. Even on Twitter, the classical music nerds I run with were mostly twittering about other things.

You would think the Schubert Club would have set up a 24-hour grief hot line where we could call and discuss our feelings. But no.

I guess people get forgotten, you know? People grow old, they fall off the merry-go-round. It makes me feel a little better about Leonard Pennario who, it used to confound me, how he could have fallen off the music world's radar. Now I see, it happens. I read somewhere that Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau himself worried about it, said he thought he was forgotten among the younger generations. Perhaps "worried" is not the right world. Probably knowing him as I do (listen to me!) he simply said it reflectively and philosophically.

Whatever, at least we get to listen to him on Deutsche Grammophon.

Deutsche Grammophon, danke!