Faà di Bruno, Giovanni Matteo [Horatio, Orazio] 83

Fisher, Sylvia (Gwendoline Victoria)

(b Melbourne, 18 April 1910; d Melbourne, 25 Aug 1996). Australian soprano. She studied at the Melba Memorial Conservatorium in Melbourne with Mary Campbell, then privately with Adolf Spivakovsky. While a student she made her operatic début (1932) as Hermione in Lully’s Cadmus et Hermione, her only stage performance before she moved to Europe in 1947. She joined the Covent Garden company in 1948, making her début that December as Leonore, and remained a member of the ensemble until 1958. Her many London roles included the Marschallin, Ellen Orford, a moving Mother Marie in the British première of Dialogues des Carmélites, Elsa, Agathe and Sieglinde, and she was compared with Lotte Lehmann for warmth of stage presence and vocal radiance. She scored a notable success as Kostelnička Buryjova in the first British production of Jenůfa (1956); she also sang Turandot, Brünnhilde (Die Walküre) and Isolde, but they were vocally too demanding so she later wisely abandoned them. After some years of retrenchment, she had a second career with the English Opera Group from 1963 as Lady Billows (Albert Herring), the Female Chorus (The Rape of Lucretia) and Mrs Grose (The Turn of the Screw); she created the role of Miss Wingrave in 1971 and repeated it at Covent Garden in 1973. When Gloriana was revived at Sadler’s Wells in 1966 she triumphed as a commanding and dignified Elizabeth I. Her final appearances were in 1973 as a powerful Marfa Kabanicha (Kát’a Kabanová) for the ENO. She always managed to convey the essence of a role through her sympathetic identification with it, most notably as the Marschallin, Lady Billows, Elizabeth I and Miss Wingrave.

HAROLD ROSENTHAL/ROGER COVELL

Fisher, William Arms

(b San Francisco, 27 April 1861; d Boston, 18 Dec 1948). American music editor and writer on music. His early musical training was in Oakland, New York and London. He studied with Horatio Parker and at the National Conservatory with Dvořák. He taught briefly at the National Conservatory, and in 1897 became editor and director of publications for the Oliver Ditson Co. in Boston; from 1926 to his retirement in 1937 he was vice-president of the company. He gained some reputation as a songwriter and is best remembered today for setting the words ‘Goin' home’ to the melody of the second movement of Dvořák's ‘New World’ Symphony.

Fisher was one of the earliest historians to recognize the vitality and value of 18th- and early 19th-century American music. His Notes on Music in Old Boston (Boston, 1918/R) treats its subject sympathetically and accurately, presenting many facsimiles and illustrations of music, musicians and advertisements. One Hundred and Fifty Years of Music Publishing in the United States (Boston, 1934/R) is a revision and expansion of the earlier book, emphasizing the contributions of the Oliver Ditson Co. His two historical anthologies, Ye Olde New-England Psalm-Tunes, 1620–1820 (Boston, 1930) and The Music that Washington Knew (Boston, 1931), present this music in revised and edited form, unsuited to historical purposes. He also wrote Music Festivals in the United States (Boston, 1934) and edited several anthologies of Irish songs, Negro spirituals, etc.

KARL KROEGER

Fishman, Natan L'vovich

(b Baku, 29 May/9 June 1909; d Moscow, 7 Nov 1986). Russian musicologist and pianist. He received his early musical education from his father, L.N. Fishman (1883–1936), conductor of an amateur theatre in Baku. In 1927 he graduated from M.L. Presman's piano class at the Baku Conservatory and in 1931 from L.V. Nikolayev's piano class at the Leningrad Conservatory. He then worked as a concert pianist (1925–40) and taught the piano in Moscow from 1935. He was principal conductor of the Malïy Theatre in Moscow (1943–50) and a senior research fellow at the Glinka Museum of Musical Culture (1951–78). As a musicologist Fishman became known particularly for his research on Beethoven. In 1962 he published a transcription and study of the Beethoven sketchbooks in the Wielhorski archives, for which he was awarded the doctorate in 1968. In 1970 he undertook to publish Russian translations of Beethoven's letters; the third and fourth volumes of this project appeared after his death. He edited several other books on Beethoven, and wrote articles on methodology, musical aesthetics and piano teaching.

WRITINGS

‘Na pravom flange’ [On the right flank], Malïy teatr na frontakh Velikoy Otechestvennoy Voynï (Moscow, 1949), 96–111

‘Neopublikovannaya rukopis' ėskizov betkhovenskoy sonatï (op.31, no.3)’ [An unpublished manuscript of Beethoven's sketches for the Sonata op.31 no.3], SovM (1952), no.3, pp.55–62

‘Geyligenshtadskaya ėskiznaya tetrad' Betkhovena’ [Beethoven's Heiligenstadt Testament], Voprosï mozïkoznaniya, iii (1956), 525–61

Avtografï Betkhovena v khranilishchakh SSSR [Beethoven autographs in Soviet archives] (Moscow, 1959)

‘Autographen Beethovens in der UdSSR’, BMw iii/1 (1961), 22–9

Kniga ėskizov Betkhovena za 1802–3 godï: issledovaniye i rasshifrovka [Beethoven's sketchbook of 1802–3: research and transcription] (diss., Moscow Conservatory, 1968; Moscow, 1962)

‘Lyudvig van Betkhoven o fortepiannom ispolnitel'stve i pedagogike’ [Beethoven on piano performance and teaching], Voprosï fortepiannoy pedagogiki, ed. V.A. Natanson (Moscow, 1963), 118–57; repr. in Voprosï muzïkal'noy pedagogiki, xi (1997), 98–137

‘Ėstetika F.E. Bakha’ [C.P.E. Bach's aesthetic], SovM (1964), no.8, pp.59–65

‘Skryabin o sebe’ [Skryabin on himself], SovM (1966), no.1, pp.127–31 [on Skryabin's letters]

ed.: Metodicheskiye zapiski po voprosam muzïkal'nogo obrazovaniya [Methodology notes on matters of musical education] (Moscow, 1966–79) [incl. ‘Iz pedagogicheskikh sovetov Betkhovena’ [Beethoven's teaching advice], i, 260–75]

‘Beiträge zur Beethoveniana’, BMw, ix (1967), 317–24

‘Stanovleniye muzïkanta-grazhdanina’ [The establishment of a musician and a citizen], A.V. Gol'denveyzer: stat'i, materialï, vospominaniya (Moscow, 1967), 33–51

‘Realistische Tendenzen im Schaffensprozess Beethovens’, Beethoven Congress: Berlin 1970, 427–32

‘Das Skizzenbuch Beethovens aus den Jahren 1802–1803 aus den Familienarchiv Wielhorski und die ersten Skizzen zur “Eroica”’, GfMKB: Bonn 1970, 104–7

‘Die Uraufführung der Missa solemnis’, BMw, x (1970), 274–81

ed. and trans., with L.S. Tovalyova: Pis'ma Betkhovena [Beethoven's letters] (Moscow, 1970–86) [incl. ‘Pis'ma Betkhovena za dvadtsat' pyat' let’ [Twenty-five years of Beethoven's letters], i, 3–69; ‘Pis'ma Betkhovena za 1812–1816 godï’ [Beethoven's letters from the period 1812–16], ii, 3–63; ‘Pis'ma Betkhovena za 1817–1822 godï’ [Beethoven's letters from the period 1817–22], iii, 3–60]

ed.: Lyudvig van Betkhoven: zhizn', tvorchestvo okruzheniye. (biograficheskiy fotoal'bom) [Ludwig van Beethoven: his life, his creative work, his circle, and a biographical photo album] (Moscow, 1971)

ed.: Betkhoven: sbornik statey [Collection of articles] (Moscow, 1971–2)

ed.: Iz istorii sovetskoy betkhovenianï [The history of Soviet Beethoveniana] (Moscow, 1972)

‘Muzïkal'nïy arkhiv Betkhovena za 1812–1816 godï’ [Beethoven's musical documents from the period 1812–16], SovM (1977), no.3, pp.87–93

‘Das Moskauer Skizzenbuch Beethovens aus dem Archiv von M.J. Wielhorsky’, Beiträge zur Beethoven-Bibliographie: Studien und Materialien zum Werkverzeichniss von Kinsky-Halm, ed. K. Dorfmüller (Munich, 1978), 61–7

‘K probleme: Betkhoven i Kant’ [On Beethoven and Kant], Studia musicologia aesthetica, theoretica, historica: Zofia Lissa w 70. roku urodzin, ed. E. Dziębowska (Kraków, 1979), 185–94

ed., with L.A. Barenboym: L.V. Nikolayev: stat'i, vospominaniya sovremennikov, pis'ma [Articles, reminiscences of contemporaries, letters] (Leningrad, 1979) [incl. ‘Iz zametok na polyakh prochitannoy knigi’ [Notes in the margins of a book that has been read], 141–7

Ėtyudi i ocherki po betkhoveniane [Studies and essays on Beethoveniana] (Moscow, 1982)

‘O vozmozhnostyakh ispolneniya betkhovenskogo repertuara’ [On the possibilities of performing the Beethoven repertory], Voprosï muzïkal'noy pedagogiki, v (1984), 114–34

BIBLIOGRAPHY

V.V. Protopopov: ‘Bol'shoy uspekh sovetskoy Betkhovenianï’ [A great success for Soviet Beethoveniana], SovM (1963), no.3, pp.132–6

A. Klimowizki: ‘Die sowjetische Beethoven-Forschung in der UdSSR’, BMw, xxvii (1987), 323–7

Obituaries: SovM (1987), no.2, 128 only; BMw, xxvii (1987), 274 only

‘Konferentsiya pamyati Natana L'vovicha Fishmana’ [A conference in memory of Fishman], Muzïkal'noye obozreniye (1995), no.3, p.4 only

LEV GINZBURG/ABRAHAM I. KLIMOVITSKY