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All Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Quotes
Which is why, in my lieder concerts, I always strove, when possible, to sing only the works of a single composer, so that the audience could be gradually drawn into a particular creative genius' way of thinking, and could follow him.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
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The future? Like unwritten books and unborn children, you don't talk about it.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
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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.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
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If you only do little clusters - three or four songs by one, and another, and then yet another - you lose the opportunity to think your way into the composer's mind, since, after all, most of these pieces are quite brief.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
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It's not all that different with the orchestra. There are orchestras that seem to be encased in dough, so that first you have to break through the normal routine, and clear out the openings.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
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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.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
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Toward the end of his life, one can sense that he was no longer thinking his way into the minds of others, causing them to speak on his behalf, but that he was now speaking for himself.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
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All music has to speak in some form or other.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
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But, on the other hand, if Schubert were alive today, he would find even richer fields to plow.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
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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.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
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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.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
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What concerns me, is the general social tendency to enforce a level, above which nothing rises and stands out.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
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But the thing that will always occupy me the most is music.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
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Admittedly, it is really our duty, as artists, to hold up a mirror to our own era; but, on the other hand, these works have lives of their own, and they're still alive today.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
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Many, many composers have only found their way to a certain form, through familiarizing themselves with texts.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
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