Fritz Wunderlich sings Music of the 20th Century
1954-1960
2019
Alban Berg
Carl Orff
Dietrich von Bausznern
Everett Helm
Fritz Neumeyer
Günter Raphael
Hans Pfitzner
Heinrich Fleischner
Hermann Reutter
Igor Strawinsky
Werner Egk
Fritz Wunderlich
Kammerorchester des Saarländischen Rundfunks
Chor der Staatlichen Hochschule für Musik Freiburg
Orchester der Staatlichen Hochschule für Musik Freiburg
Südfunk-Sinfonieorchester
Hans Müller-Kray
CD 1 Günter Raphael: Palmström-Sonata op. 69
CD 1 Fritz Neumeyer: Studentenlieder
CD 1 Dietrich von Bausznern: Einerlei ob arm oder reich (from: Jacqueline Putputput)
CD 1 Everett Helm: Die Belagerung von Tottenburg
CD 1 Heinrich Fleischner: Zirkus Carambas (Opera giocosa)
CD 2 Hans Pfitzner: Von deutscher Seele op. 28 (A romantic cantata on texts of Joseph von Eichendorff)
CD 2 Hermann Reutter: Triptychon (Three poems by Schiller)
CD 3 Igor Strawinsky: Non reperias vetus scelus (from: Oedipus Rex)
CD 3 Carl Orff: Aber jetzt kommt aus dem Thor Ismene (from: Antigonae)
CD 3 Carl Orff: Der Geist der Liebe (from: Antigonae)
CD 3 Carl Orff: Ach, wie schwer ist Wissen, wo es unnütz dem Wissenden (from: Ödipus der Tyrann)
CD 3 Carl Orff: Bist du noch eigenmächtig, muss ich (from: Ödipus der Tyrann)
CD 3 Werner Egk: Ganz ungewöhnlich, ganz unverhofft – Mischka, den Wagen (from: Der Revisor)
CD 3 Werner Egk: Die Anstalt gefällt mir, das Frühstück war wundervoll (from: Der Revisor)
CD 3 Alban Berg: Du der Platz ist verflucht (from: Wozzeck)
CD 3 Alban Berg: Ich hab ein Hemdlein an – Oh! oh! Andres! ich kann nicht schlafen (from: Wozzeck)
This new album is Vol. 8 in our series entitled Fritz Wunderlich – The SWR Recordings. Fritz Wunderlich was a perfect interpreter of 20th-century music. Contains never before released recordings and many rarities worth discovering. A most vivid collection of music in various styles – brilliantly sung, you couldn’t wish for a better performance.
Fritz Wunderlich not only delighted the world with beautiful tenor melodies by great masters such as J. S. Bach or Mozart, he also ventured into music that was composed before and after their time. We demonstrate again through this release that this exceptional singer covered a remarkably broad musical spectrum: the three discs acknowledge his commitment to various composers of the 20th century, and cover a variety of musical styles that is unequalled.
So, are we to consider the postwar artist Wunderlich, nowadays chiefly known as a Mozart singer, as an interpreter of 'new music'? His biographer Werner Pfister put it as follows: “Describing him as a Mozart tenor is nothing but a label and it almost seems a bit of an unfair one as you could just as well consider Fritz Wunderlich to be the perfect interpreter of 20th-century music. He sang Orff, Stravinsky, Alban Berg, Richard Strauss, Werner Egk, Janáček, Hans Pfitzner and Günter Raphael, and not only enjoyed doing so but sang their compositions frequently. He was the perfect interpreter of modern music – on opera stages, at concerts and on the radio.”
The composers mentioned in the previous paragraph are represented in this 3-CD set, and we added some remarkable recordings of unknown composers like Everett Helm, Dietrich von Bausznern, Heinrich Feischner and Hermann Reutter. Some of the music comes as a first release and is definitely worth hearing. Our admiration for the perfection of this singer in more taxing music is certainly warranted.
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