Albert Fischer (singer)

Fischer (standing, center) with Bruno Kittel and participants in the performance of Judas Maccabaeus , Berlin (October 16, 1926)

Albert Fischer (born July 26, 1878 in Aue ; † June 6, 1948 ) was a German opera singer ( baritone ).

Life

Albert Fischer was born on July 26, 1878 as the son of the factory owner Karl Albert Fischer and his wife Sophie Auguste (* 1842), b. Kunzmann, born in Aue / Erzgebirge. From the age of 6 he attended the local secondary school. As a four-year-old, Fischer received piano lessons from his cantor . In 1886 he was accepted into the church choir of St. Nicolai. In 1893, due to the death of the previous conductor, he took over the management of the military choir. After finishing secondary school, he completed a commercial apprenticeship in Aue.

Education

In 1899 he began to study music at the conservatory in Dresden . He studied church music (organ playing) with Professor Jansen. After the final exam in organ playing, he studied singing with Professor Illert. In April 1901 he had to interrupt his studies in Dresden because of the loss of his scholarship, an additional income was insufficient to further finance his studies in Dresden. In April 1902 he moved to Görlitz to live with his brother Louis . Here he studied with music director Hellwig. In 1902 he switched to Professor Heinemann at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin, where he received a scholarship. Here he passed his exams in singing in 1903. Two days later I passed the stage singer exam at the Theater des Westens .

Stage career

Albert Fischer started his first engagement in 1904 as a hero baritone at the theater in Metz . Here he met Helene Heberle, whom he married in 1905. In 1909 their son Albert was born.

In 1907 he was hired by Traugott Ochs , director of the Princely Conservatory and the Princely Court Orchestra, to Sondershausen , where he made his debut as the title figure in Wagner's Fliegendem Holländer . As a result, he was employed as a senior director at the Princely Theater and as a teacher for singing at the Princely Conservatory in Sondershausen. The Fischer family moved into an apartment on Marienstraße, today's August-Bebel-Straße. In Sondershausen he taught at the conservatory, and in addition to his work in the theater management, he sang many roles in his field a. a. from Cavalleria rusticana , Bajazzo , Die Walküre , La traviata , Tannhäuser , Der Freischütz . He continued to take on many roles in oratorios . In 1908 he was appointed chamber singer , in 1911 he was given the title of professor. He was the youngest professor at a music college in Germany of his time. On May 8, 1912, he met Max Reger in Meiningen , who was also in Sondershausen in April 1916. He gave concerts with the Thomaner Choir in Leipzig and in 1918 for the first time with the Berliner Singakademie in Berlin.

In 1920 he was appointed as a teacher for singing at the Hochschule für Musik Berlin and moved with the family to Berlin. From 1923 he also had an engagement as first hero baritone at the German State Opera Berlin . In addition, there was a teaching position at the Stern Conservatory.

Fischer devoted himself particularly to the sacred music of Bach and Handel . His interpretations made him widely known in Germany and abroad. He became a sought-after soloist in many cities. He sang at the performance of the Handel Oratorio Israel in Egypt at La Scala in Milan .

Fischer's first wife, Helene, died in 1943. In the same year he married his student and partner Gerda Dittberner, who accompanied and supported him at his concerts, who was disabled because of an amputation of his foot. In 1943, Fischer's house at Friedrichsruher Strasse 18 in Berlin-Halensee was destroyed and the couple moved to Bad Lauterberg in the Harz region . In August 1944, after more than two decades, there was another concert by Fischer in Sondershausen. On February 2, 1945, he was giving another concert in Sondershausen.

Soon a group of students gathered around Fischer. In May 1945 he took over the leadership of the special houses church choir. After the reopening of the Sondershäuser Conservatory, he was employed there as a teacher for vocal training. In the summer he was able to take up concert tours in Thuringia again. In June 1945 Albert Fischer took over the leadership of a double quartet. The main task of this association was the maintenance of the German folk song. The Albert Fischer double quartet soon became a success and later expanded to a choir with 25 singers. This choir still exists today under the name of Albert Fischer Choir Group in Sondershausen. In addition, Fischer continued to give numerous concerts and made recordings in the Funkhaus Weimar in 1947 and 1948, which have been preserved. He had his last public appearance on May 6, 1948 in the Erfurt Predigerkirche, where he sang a part in Mendelssohn's Elias .

Albert Fischer died shortly before the age of 70 on June 6, 1948. He was buried in the cemetery in Berlin-Stahnsdorf.

Reviews

In the reviews of concerts in 1942 and 1943 one can read:

“... First and foremost, the representative of the bass part, chamber singer Prof. Albert Fischer, Berlin, who sang lively and beautifully with great creative power and total dedication. With him, every word and phrase is individually shaped from the spirit of music and poetry. In addition, there is a rich experience that makes him our most tried and tested oratorio singer. ”- Königsberg (Johannes Passion)

“… Professor Albert Fischer, a great Handel singer, gave the bass part the overriding meaning it deserved, his expressive voice streamed through the room mightily. He also gave the lyrical passages an enchanting shine. ”- Frankfurt O. (“ Der Feldherr ”)

“... and finally AF, probably the most phenomenal performer of such roles that you can imagine: You must have heard the dreary tonelessness of his voice in the first recitative, must have experienced his animal aria or the shocking rigidity of even this voice in E flat minor Part "You turn away from your face" in order to fully understand what this singer does with notes and their backgrounds. "- Koblenz (" The Creation ")

literature

• A. Fischer (Ed. G. Fischer-Dittberner 1952): My life
• G. Meißner: The Albert Fischer Choir Group is celebrating its 50th anniversary , Sondershäuser Heimat-Echo 5 (1995), Issue No. 5, 7, 9, 10, 11
• 50 years of the Albert Fischer choir group in Sondershausen , commemorative publication for the anniversary celebrations in June 1995