Though he certainly had the talent for it, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau rarely took on humorous roles in the theater or concert hall. That he had a superb command of comic nuance is proved not only by his stunning personification of Falstaff in Verdi’s final opera, but by his performances of Scottish, Irish, and Welsh folk songs. In 1952 Fischer-Dieskau joined forces with the celebrated pianist Michael Raucheisen, two other instrumentalists, and the RIAS Chamber Chorus to record twenty-two folk songs from Ireland and Great Britain. The arrangements stem from none other than Ludwig van Beethoven, who dispatched a good many folk-song arrangements to Edinburgh for a handsome fee. The listener learns a great deal about love and nature, conviviality, national pride, and wine consumption in the British Isles – and can hear how supremely Fischer-Dieskau wields his baritone, from uninhibited drinking songs to embodiments of innocent love.