Composer: Luigi Cherubini, Christoph Willibald Gluck, George Frideric Handel, Ignaz Holzbauer, Giovanni Paisiello, Johann Friedrich Reichardt, Vincenzo Righini, Alessandro Scarlatti
Performer: Fritz Wunderlich
Orchestra: SWR Rundfunkorchester Kaiserslautern, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR
Conductor: Emmerich Smola, Hans Müller-Kray, Alfons Richter
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: SWR Music
Catalogue: SWR19059CD
Release: 2018
Size: 368 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Holzbauer: Gunther von Schwarzburg
01. Schönster Sohn des Himmels!
02. O König, deine Hand
Gluck: L’Innocenza Giustificata
03. Alte Eiche an schwindelnden Hängen (Sung in German)
Reichardt: Brenno
04. Santi numi del cielo
Paisiello: L’Amor contrastato, ‘La Molinara’
05. Nel cor più non mi sento
Righini: Alcide al Bivio
06. Questo agevole a ameno – Dei clementi, amici dei
07. Alme belle, fugitte prudenti
Cherubini: Der Wasserträger
08. O du meine Erretter
09. Mich trennen soll ich von dem Gatten
10. Gott! Täuscht mein Auge mich nicht
11. Dies Schweigen ist so fürchterlich
Scarlatti, A: Gli equivoci in amore, o vero La Rosaura
12. Gli equivoci in amore, o vero La Rosaura: Quel povero core
Handel: Serse
13. Ombra mai fù
This album is the sixth installment of the series dedicated to the SWR recordings of Fritz Wunderlich. It contains arias composed by less known contemporaries of Mozart, including two arias by Alessandro Scarlatii and Händel.Fritz Wunderlich had a bright, albeit entirely too short career. Born to a violinist mother and choir director father, he was enveloped in music from an early age. He was urged to pursue classical voice training by a theater troupe who heard him singing as they passed by the bakery where he worked. He was granted a scholarship to the Freiburg Music Academy in Breisgau, and studied there from 1950 to 1955. While there he also studied the classical horn, which explains his incredible breath control. During the remaining decade of his life Fritz Wunderlich gained respect as a Mozart singer, Bach interpreter, and Bel Canto and light opera performer.
Südwestrundfunk radio (SWR) is still putting out previously-unreleased material from the famous German tenor Fritz Wunderlich, who sang a vast repertoire running from baroque to Mozart, via romantic opera, operetta and popular song. At least two facets of this new volume are positively enchanting. The first is the pure pleasure of listening to brand-new releases, and the second is the discovery of a little-known repertoire from Mozart’s contemporaries. Although their proximity with Alessandro Scarlatti and Handel is a little anachronistic, these are after all presented as bonus material. Recorded between 1957 and 1962 during the great Mozartian tenor’s short career, these recordings, made with two different orchestras led by three different conductors, alternate between tender and heroic arias from the operas of Ignaz Holzbauer, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Johann Friedrich Reichardt, Giovanni Paisiello, Vincenzo Righini and Luigi Cherubini, finishing with Handel’s famous “Largo”, the aria Ombra mai fù, taken from his opera Serse.
This new album brings us Wunderlich’s very special timbre, a mix of clarity and nasality, with a natural ease which fits this repertoire like a glove. What’s more, it offers us the joy of rediscovering, in several duets, the beautiful coloratura voice of Belgian soprano Elisabeth Verlooy who had an honourable career in opera and light operetta.