tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-416983732847060845.post3490980709758922678..comments2024-03-05T10:14:38.181+00:00Comments on CLASSICAL ICONOCLAST: Hysterically funny 70's Hugo WolfDoundou Tchilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07469682216179706743noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-416983732847060845.post-25286050357048710802011-06-10T00:32:54.316+01:002011-06-10T00:32:54.316+01:00Everyone reveres great artists but most people are...Everyone reveres great artists but most people are sane enough to realize that there's a difference between reverence and idolatry. Normal people who revere an artist revere the art the artists serves. Idolators, on the other hand, don't care about the art but the icon. That's why they're too insecure to cope with the idea that their God might after all be human. Normal people don't have to "speak out". <br /><br />The "World's Greatest DFD fans" are in fact his worst enemies. They don't care about the art, because they want it mummified in his glory. That's anti-art. Genuine reverence isn't neurotic. Go read Stephen King's book Misery, or see the movie. <br /><br />Because I care about DFD and his art, it sickens me that the personality cult his "Greatest Fans" have created mars his legacy.Doundou Tchilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07469682216179706743noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-416983732847060845.post-88498077743027502112011-06-09T02:22:08.624+01:002011-06-09T02:22:08.624+01:00I am in no way a Fischer - Dieskau fanatic, althou...I am in no way a Fischer - Dieskau fanatic, although I count his recitals as some of the great experiences of my concert-going life. I am lucky (?) to be old enough to have lived through the incredible resurgence of the song recital--when I was growing up in NYC Christa Ludwig, Schwarzkopf, Fischer -Dieskau, Fassbaender, Janet Baker, Ameling, Evelyn Lear and many more gave annual recitals and one missed them at the peril of missing something precious and irreplaceable. If anything, I could be called a Janet Baker fanatic -- it is she who I guess I loved most of all and who gave me my greatest experiences in recital. You do not need to be a fanatic to revere a great artist and feel the need to speak out when you read something with which you disagree.davidzaldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16814184032839526798noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-416983732847060845.post-46285607415224465732011-06-08T17:27:17.563+01:002011-06-08T17:27:17.563+01:00DFD has been an important part of my life for 45 y...DFD has been an important part of my life for 45 years. He's like a father figure to me and I've listened to nearly everything. I'm a fan but not a fanatic. Unfortunately some of DFD's following are fanatical extremists, who cannot accept that he is not God. That attitude is anti-art because it substitutes personality cult for real artistic engagement. Art is greater than any one individual. Fanatics aren't interested in art. Remember the Kathy Burke character in Stephen King's Misery ? <br /><br />It's not DFD's fault that some of his more extreme followers are the way they are but ultimately they are destructive to the very ideals of art that he and many others stand for. And yes, I do think DFD's stiff. So what? It's part of his persona. Prussian schoolmaster's son after all. It just does not follow that DFD's perfect, or that everyone else must be the same as he was.Doundou Tchilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07469682216179706743noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-416983732847060845.post-60901969099750262622011-06-07T02:58:07.019+01:002011-06-07T02:58:07.019+01:00Just couldn't read this and not comment -- Fis...Just couldn't read this and not comment -- Fischer-Dieskau stiff and couldn't act? Why must you praise Prey by bashing F-D? Of course Prey had a beautiful voice and a charm all his own, but F-D was one of the towering artists of the last century. His recitals were intense, focused, dangerous. Certainly some of the best acting I ever experienced. Watch the incredible Arabella video from Munich -- he and Della Casa are so detailed, vulnerable, committed. They are right up there with Callas, Gobbi, Vickers, Scotto, the greatest singing actors of our age. Stiff???davidzaldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16814184032839526798noreply@blogger.com