Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau has left his mark on the musical scene since his debuts in 1947, with the recording of Schubert's Schwanengesang and Winterreise for the American Sector Radio in Berlin. He played on every stage, with the greatest performers, under the baton of the greatest directors (Wilhelm Fürtwangler especially had a great influence on the young musician in the 1950's).

As a matter of fact, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is the singer who recorded the most in the 20th century. Yet, the exceptional personality of the German baritone does not come down to his successful career. He had an exhaustive knowledge of the Lied, a genre he was particularly found of; a genre which, as he himself put it, "compels the musician to plunge into the very core of poetry." He was also a teacher, a musicologist, a director and a painter. But whatever he did, he always showed an admirable humility. As Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau himself summed it up: "The important thing is to discover the music through the musicians, not the musicians through the music."

Enhanced with exclusive, never-before-seen commentary by the director.