Time out for Schubert

Today, all kinds of work to do. A to-do list a mile a long!

With which, YouTube.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singing "Auf Der Bruck."

The version with Gerald Moore is superior to the one with Sviatoslav Richter. Gerald Moore has a spring in his step. Well, he is sitting at the piano but you know what I mean.

Richter is just a tad, a tad slower. It is only a microsecond's worth but it makes a difference. However, I have a treasured vinyl record with Fischer-Dieskau teaming up with Richter where they take it over the top. Fischer-Dieskau is older on that record and his voice is rawer but I do reckon that might be the best recording of all.

I wonder if that recording is on YouTube. I will have to go looking for it.

La la la la la la la.

As if I have no work to do!

The fun of the Fischer-Dieskau/Richter video is that it is an actual video. There are all kinds of pieces of this recital kicking around YouTube. I have watched a bunch of them. They are hilarious because Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is just so, so charming. He is having the most wonderful time. He is looking this way and that and enjoying the songs that he sings and he is handsome and cuddly like a big puppy ...

... and you just want to hug him and kiss him. Here he is in a song I have loved since I was a teenager, "Fischerweise." The way he sings that last line: "Den Fisch betruegst du nicht." Then the way he listens up to the piano. Ha, ha! Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, you sweet thing! Get over here, you.

Meanwhile you get Richter and he is just this icy ugly old guy at the piano squinting at the music and forging grimly ahead.

Too funny.

More fun than I have time to be having right now.

Alas.