Start from scratch every time

Benjamin Appl on working with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau:

When people ask me about what I learned from Fischer-Dieskau, that’s what I always come back to: of course I could say a hundred things about technique and his reputation, but what I found most inspiring was how he created everything afresh. Whenever he was teaching he’d prepare for days, learning the music off-copy again so that he knew every detail without needing to use the score. He’d ask so many questions about harmonies, about the poet’s background and situation, and I think that’s the sign of a great artist: to dig deep, and not to deliver a performance but to create it from scratch every time.

K. Cooper, “Benjamin Appl on Winterreise”, Presto, 16 February 2022, https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/articles/4542–interview-benjamin-appl-on-winterreise?utm_source=News-2022-02-18. Accessed 19 February 2022.

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