Performer: Fritz Wunderlich
Number of Discs: 3
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: SWR MusicНет ручек
Catalogue: SWR19075CD
Release: 2019
Size: 834 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
CD 01
Günther Raphael: Palmström Sonate
01. No. 1, Palmström
02. No. 2, Der Schnupfen
03. No. 3, Nach Norden
04. No. 4, Das Perlhuhn
05. No. 5, Die Geruchsorgel
Neumeyer: Studentenlieder
06. No. 1, Ein Maienlob
07. No. 2, Tanzlied
08. No. 3, Auf den anbrechenden Morgen
09. No. 4, Vergebliche Wacht
10. No. 5, Abendsegen
11. No. 6, Auf die Liebe
12. No. 7, Wo sind die Stunden
13. No. 8, Fast nach dem Holländischen
Dietrich von Bausznern: Jacqueline Putputput
14. Einerlei ob arm oder reich
Helm: Die Belagerung von Tottenbuerg
15. Die reiten, haben’s gut
16. Tritt ein
17. Ach, nun ist es so gekommen
18. Herzleutnant, hab’ um dich gebangt
Feischner: Zirkus Carambas
19. Ach, Bumbo, mein guter Alter
20. Herrlich ist dieses Plätzchen
CD 02
Pfitzner: Von deutscher Seele, Op. 28
01. No. 1, Es geht wohl anders als du meinst
02. No. 5, Herz, in deinen sonnenhellen Tagen
03. No. 9, Die Lerche grüßt den ersten Strahl – No. 10, Wenn der Hahn kräht auf dem Dache – No. 11, Ewig muntres Spiel der Wogen – No. 12, Der Wandrer von der Heimat weit – No. 13, Weil jetzo alles stille ist
04. No. 16, Was ich wollte, liegt zerschlagen
05. No. 22, Da die Welt zur Ruh’ gegangen
06. No. 26, Wenn die Wogen unten toben
Reutter: Triptychon
07. No. 1, Der Spruch des Konfuzius
08. No. 2, Der Abend
09. No. 3, Das Punschlied
CD 03
Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex
01. Non reperias vetus scelus
Orff: Antigonae
02. Aber jetzt kommt aus dem Thor Ismene
03. Der Geist der Liebe
Orff: Oedipus der Tyrann
04. Ach, wie schwer ist Wissen, wo es unnütz dem Wissenden
05. Bist du noch eigenmächtig, muss ich
Egk: Der Revisor
06. Ganz ungewöhnlich, ganz unverhofft – Mischka, den Wagen
07. Die Anstalt gefällt mir, das Frühstück war wundervoll
Berg: Wozzeck
08. Du der Platz ist verflucht
09. Ich hab ein Hemdlein an – Oh! Oh! Andres! Ich kann nicht schlafen
This is the 8th installment in the SWR CLASSIC series dedicated to Fritz Wunderlich. It contains never before released recordings as well as rarely performed repertoire worth discovering, brilliantly sung by one of the most talented tenors of all times. The esteemed German tenor, Fritz Wunderlich was no doubt enveloped in music at an early age. Urged to pursue classical voice training by theater people who heard him singing as they passed the bakery where he worked, the young Wunderlich was granted a scholarship to the Freiburg Music Academy in Breisgau by the town fathers. He studied there from 1950 to 1955, also studying the classical horn, which explains his almost supernatural breath control. After playing Tamino in a 1955 student production of W.A. Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Fritz Wunderlich was engaged by the Wurttemberg State Opera in Stuttgart. His first professional role was as Ulrich Eislinger in Die Meistersinger. When he was called to play Tamino for an ailing Josef Traxel, Stuttgart had a new star and Fritz Wunderlich’s short but amazing career had begun. During the remaining decade of his life Fritz Wunderlich gained the highest respect as a W.A. Mozart singer, lending lyrical brilliance to J.S. Bach, Schubert and Gustav Mahler and melodic tenderness to Bel Canto and light opera roles. Following such greats as Tauber and Schmidt, Wunderlich also devoted a good part of his time to the beautiful songs of such composers as Strauss, Lehár, Kálmán and Fall.
His life accidentally cut short days before his thirty-sixth birthday, the tenor Fritz Wunderlich is cemented in memory as an incomparable interpreter of Mozart and Schubert. In a dazzling manner, this album shows how incomplete Wunderlich’s reputation is and how, since his early days, he was an extraordinary interpreter of the music of his time. Recorded by the south German radios between 1956 and 1960, the works presented here originate from a group of musicians that were ignored and reviled by the Nazi regime but remained present in the country against all odds.
Such is the case of Günter Raphael, the choirmaster and organist at St. Thomas Leipzig, who lost his job in 1934 after being classed “half-Jew” by the authorities. Well-liked in the post-war GDR, he possessed a distinct sense of humor shown in Sonate Palmström in which he musicalized the absurd poems of Christian Morgenstern and combined a variety of elements such as jazz, pop music and cabaret. A pioneer in Germany of baroque music played on period instruments, Fritz Neumeyer composed for his friend Wunderlich a delectable neo-classical suite of Studentenlieder (“Student Songs”) based on humorous texts from the 17th Century that the tenor interprets with his usual enthusiasm.
This passionate publication also provides extracts of operas and sung lieders as well as the diverse ensembles of Dietrich von Bausznern, a friend and classmate of Fritz Wunderlich, Everett Helm, Heinrich Feischner, Hans Pfitzner, Hermann Reutter, Alban Bery (Wozzeck) and Carl Orff, to which the editors have added an air of Stavinski’s oratorio Oedopus Rex. These superbly restored recordings offer a dive into a mysterious, post-war German universe while presenting another side of an artist we thought we already knew well.