47 Quotes by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

Many, many composers have only found their way to a certain form, through familiarizing themselves with texts.

Anyone who draws attention to himself as an individual, is viewed with suspicion. We acquired this tendency, of course, from America, and we must resist it: levelling, and imitation of what others are already doing.

And what unity is to be had, at a time when orchestras are dying out, and when opera houses are about to close their doors; what's going to come next - when nothing new in music, for the orchestra, is truly lasting: pieces are performed once, and then they're thrown away.

Brahms believed that there was no need to publish absolutely everything that Schubert ever wrote.

The future? Like unwritten books and unborn children, you don't talk about it.

It is desirable that people make music on the breath, with the breath.

Particularly at around the age of 70 you reach a stage where you have to be very careful. If, at that point, you abandon the work you have been doing, there is a good chance that you will just collapse and drift.

But, on the other hand, if Schubert were alive today, he would find even richer fields to plow.

Unfortunately, it happens all too seldom that you really disappear behind a work, that you are no longer audible as an interpreter.