When you go out onto the stage, all the preparation has to be forced into your subconscious. For the moment of the performance, we all have to return to a new level of unconsciousness. All the reflection and all the doubts have to be laid aside before you start.

Recording an astonishing array of repertoire (spanning centuries) as musicologist Alan Blyth asserted "No singer in our time or probably any other has managed the range and versatility of repertory achieved by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. His recordings of Winterreise with accompanist Gerald Moore and Jörg Demus are still critically acclaimed half a century after their release.