Performer: Fritz Wunderlich
Number of Discs: 2
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: SWR Music
Catalogue: SWR19051CD
Release: 2018
Size: 633 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
CD 01
01. Senfl: Lust hab ich ghabt zur Musica
02. Senfl: Entlaubet ist der Walde
03. Senfl: Ich armes Kauzlein kleine
04. Senfl: Unsaglich Schmerz
05. Senfl: Ein alt bos Weib
06. Senfl: Wie wohl ich trag
07. anon.: Ein Blümlein fein hab ich erwählt [Liederbuch des Arnt von Aich, 16th century]
08. Hofhaimer: Was ich durch Glück
09. Isaac: Ach, weiblich Art (arr. for voice and ensemble)
10. anon.: Ich schell mein Horn im Jammerton [Liederbuch des Arnt von Aich, 16th century]
11. Lapicida: Es lebt mich hertz
12. Rener: Mein hochste Frucht
13. Fulda: Apollo aller Kunst ein Hort
Grandi: 3 Motets concertati
14. Plorabo die ac nocte
Schütz: Symphoniae Sacrae II
15. Es steh’ Gott auf, dass seine Feind’ zerstreuet werden, SWV 356
16. Was betrübst du dich, meine Seele, SWV 353
CD 02
Rosenmüller: Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae
01. Wie bald hast du gelitten, GWV 1109 / 14
02. O wie selig sind, BuxWV 90
03. Surrexit Christus hodie, BuxWV 99
Graupner: Wie bald hast du gelitten, GWV 1109 / 14
04. Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BuxWV 100
Buxtehude: O wie selig sind, die zu dem Abendmahl des Lammes berufen sind, BuxWV 90
05. Wo willst Du hin, weil’s Abend ist
05. Buxtehude: Surrexit Christus hodie BuxWV 99
Buxtehude: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BuxWV 100
07. Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BuxWV 101
08. Krieger: Wo willst Du hin, weil’s Abend ist
This release is a new installment of the SWR’s comprehensive series with recordings of the one-time tenor Fritz Wunderlich. This album contains a unique collection of Early Music repertoire written before the era of J. S. Bach. The recordings date back to the 1940s and the 1950s, and have been digitally remastered to ensure an exquisite audio experience. Although he never realized his due as a truly international star in his lifetime, Fritz Wunderlich has since become a favorite of opera lovers the world over. One has only to listen to his stunning voice to become a devotee for life. His vocal quality and strength combined with effortless expression and touching lyrical beauty make him one of the truly great tenors of the 20th century and probably of all time.
When we think of tenor Fritz Wunderlich (1930-1966) as an interpreter of “Early Music”, it is the parts he sang in Bach’s passions and oratorios that immediately come to mind. In this respect, Germany’s great tenor had already gone down in the annals of record history during his short lifetime – he died falling from a stairway due to carelessly tied shoes… His international fame in later years was due to his outstanding performances as a Mozart tenor but also to his artistic versatility which included the Romantic opera, the German Lied, the operetta as well as contemporary and even Schlager music, i.e. easy-listening semi-crossover semi-pop semi-music mostly beloved in the Germanic realm. However, Wunderlich’s first recordings of early music and of music composed in the centuries before Bach are less well-known. Their excellent sound quality, from the original mono master tapes deftly transposed into stereo impression, were remastered in the best possible way. Apart from the Bach contemporary Christoph Graupner, the repertoire presented on this double album covers a time span that ranges from two centuries to some decades before Johann Sebastian Bach’s birth, i.e. from Heinrich Isaac and Adam von Fulda – who both lived at the very end of the Middle Ages – to Buxtehude. Far from sounding operatic, Wunderlich’s then young voice (recordings were done between 1954 and 57) perfectly matches the purest style that still nowadays would not pale compared to what is done in Baroque and ancien music circles.