The German lyric tenor, Peter Schreier, died on Christmas Day at the age of 84. During a long and highly successful career, Schreier graduated from singing treble in the famous Dresdener Kreuzchor to becoming one of the world's leading tenors who embraced song, oratorio and opera, performing alongside some of the greatest artists of the day.

Born into a musical family in Meissen in Saxony, Schreier’s talent was spotted early by Rudolf Mauersberger, the conductor of the Dresden Kreuzchor and, when his voice broke, he entered the Musikhochschule in Dresden where he added conducting to his singing lessons.

He made his debut in 1957 as the First Prisoner in Beethoven’s Fidelio. In 1962 he took on larger Mozart roles like Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) and Tamino (Die Zauberflöte). He joined the Berlin State Opera and also sang frequently with the Vienna State Opera. In 1966 he appeared for the first time at Bayreuth, singing the young seaman in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in the now legendary Wieland Wagner production conducted by Karl Böhm (with Wolfgang Windgassen and Birgit Nilsson in the title roles, and subsequently released on disc by DG). Soon after he made his debuts at Salzburg and in New York, and began a major career which embraced over 60 roles (many of which were recorded with conductors like Böhm, Karajan, Carlos Kleiber and Sir Colin Davis). Besides Mozart, his repertory included Almaviva, Fenton (Verdi and Nicolai), Des Grieux, the Simpleton in Boris Godunov, Leukippos in Daphne, the Dancing Master in Ariadne auf Naxos, Flamand in Capriccio, David (Die Meistersinger), Mime (Ring), Palestrina (in Pfitzner's opera) and Lensky (Eugene Onegin).

He sang oratorio and choral works throughout his career - it was the role of the Evangelist in Bach’s passions that initially spurred his desire to sing professionally. Again, he recorded extensively with Erhard Mauersberger, Karl Richter, Claudio Abbado, Kurt Masur, Helmut Rilling as well as Karajan and Böhm (who both often performed and recorded with him in works like Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and the Mozart Requiem).

Schreier was a magnificent Lieder singer and, in partnership with pianists of the calibre of Sviatoslav Richter and András Schiff, left a series of recordings that were universally acclaimed. His Winterreise with Richter (Philips) won Gramophone’s Solo Vocal Award in 1986, his Schwanengesang with Schiff won the same award in 1990 and the following year he again took the Solo Vocal Award with Schiff for Die schöne Müllerin (Decca). He often performed and recorded with the pianists Erik Werba, Norman Shetler and Karl Engel, and also contributed to Graham Johnson’s Schubert Lieder Edition for Hyperion.

Writing about Schreier for Gramophone’s 'Reputations' column in September 2003, Alan Blyth commented that ‘Schreier's timbre has never been to everyone's taste, some finding in his tone what the Germans term "grell": perhaps the closest translation is "glaring".To my ears that quality is one that adds to the individuality of Schreier's vocal make up. In any case, while it may be there in his forte singing, it is singularly absent from his beautiful mezza voce, which he controls literally from the head as well as from the heart.'

In 1970 Schreier took up conducting and appeared with many of the world's leading orchestras including the Vienna and New York Philharmonics as well as with the Staatskapelle Dresden with whom he recorded a very fine account of Mozart's Requiem which received Gramophone's Choral Award in 1984.