The German baritone, whose career blossomed in the years after the Second World War, brought a new word-focused approach to song and became one of the greatest interpreters of the Lieder of Schubert (recording Winterreise on numerous occasions, often with Gerald Moore at the piano). His cerebral, wonderfully involved style meshed with a voice of warmth and expression to bring the great German song repertoire to vivid new life. He was a glorious oratorio singer (Britten wrote his War Requiem with a part for him), and an opera singer whose roles ranged from Mozart to Reimann via Berg and Strauss.