Fritz Wunderlich: Live on Stage

Unreleased arias from Vienna and Munich

Fritz Wunderlich (tenor), with Anneliese Rothenberger, Karl Kohn, with Claude Heater, Albrecht Peter, Anneliese Rothenberger, with Eberhard Wächter, with Lucia Popp, Lisa Della Casa, Robert Kerns, Waldemar Kmentt, Walter Berry, with Hilde Güden, Vera Little, with Kurt Böhme, Josef Knapp, with Ingeborg...

The pearl of great price...the Mozart tenor who could sound both elegant and manly...His 'Il mio tesoro' drops not a semiquaver and takes the long phrases with confident ease. At all times he... — Gramophone Magazine, January 2011 More…

Release Date: 21st Feb 2011
Catalogue No: 4779109
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Length: 74 minutes

Gramophone Awards

2011

Shortlisted - Historic

Mozart: Die Zauberflöte, K.620 / Act 1

Work length4:37

Album only

Fritz Wunderlich (tenor)
Münchner Philharmoniker
Fritz Rieger
Recorded: 1964-07-26
Recording Venue: Nationaltheater, Munich

"Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön"

Track length4:37

Album only

Excerpt, Mozart: Die Zauberflöte, K620

Work length3:33

Album only

Fritz Wunderlich (tenor)
Münchner Philharmoniker
Fritz Rieger
Recorded: 1964-07-26
Recording Venue: Nationaltheater, Munich

Holde Flöte

Track length3:33

Album only

Mozart: Die Zauberflöte, K.620 / Act 2

Work length13:00

Album only

Karl Christian Kohn (bass (vocal)), Fritz Wunderlich (tenor), Albrecht Peter (baritone), Claude Heater (tenor), Anneliese Rothenberger (soprano)
Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper München, Münchner Philharmoniker
Fritz Rieger
Recorded: 1964-07-26
Recording Venue: Nationaltheater, Munich

"Soll ich dich, Teurer, nicht mehr sehn?"

Track length2:47

Album only

Mich schreckt kein Tod

Track length2:02

Album only

Tamino mein! - Wir wandelten durch Feuergluten - Triumpf

Track length8:11

Album only

Mozart: Don Giovanni, ossia Il dissoluto punito, K.527 / Act 1

Work length4:40

Album only

Fritz Wunderlich (tenor)
Wiener Staatsoper
Herbert von Karajan
Recorded: 1963-06-22
Recording Venue: Staatsoper, Vienna (Wien)

"Come mai creder deggio" - "Dalla sua pace la mia di- pende"

Track length4:40

Album only

Mozart: Don Giovanni, ossia Il dissoluto punito, K.527 / Act 2

Work length5:14

Album only

Fritz Wunderlich (tenor)
Wiener Staatsoper
Herbert von Karajan
Recorded: 1963-06-22
Recording Venue: Staatsoper, Vienna (Wien)

Amici miei...Il mio tesoro

Track length5:14

Album only

Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia - German Version / Act I

Work length11:45

Album only

Fritz Wunderlich (tenor), Eberhard Wächter (bass (vocal))
Wiener Staatsoper
Karl Böhm
Recorded: 1966-04-28
Recording Venue: Staatsoper, Vienna (Wien)

Kavatine: "Sieh schon die Morgenröte"

Track length4:12

Album only

Duett: "Strahlt auf mich der Blitz des Goldes"

Track length7:33

Album only

Excerpt, Strauss, R: Capriccio

Work length3:58

Album only

Walter Berry (bass (vocal)), Fritz Wunderlich (tenor), Waldemar Kmentt (tenor), Robert Kerns (baritone), Lucia Popp (soprano), Lisa della Casa (soprano)
Wiener Staatsoper
Georges Prêtre
Recorded: 1964-03-21
Recording Venue: Staatsoper, Vienna (Wien)

Addio, mia vita

Track length3:58

Album only

Excerpt, Strauss, R: Daphne

Work length6:11

$0.85

$1.15

Hilde Gueden (soprano), Fritz Wunderlich (tenor)
Wiener Staatsopernorchester
Karl Böhm
Recorded: 1964-05-26
Recording Venue: Theater an der Wien, Vienna

Leukippos, du?

Track length6:11

$0.85

$1.15

Strauss, R: Der Rosenkavalier, Op.59, TrV 227 / Act 1

Work length4:58

$0.85

$1.15

Josef Knapp (bass (vocal)), Fritz Wunderlich (tenor), Kurt Böhme (bass (vocal))
Orchester des Bayerischen Staatsoper
Rudolf Kempe
Recorded: 1966-07-20
Recording Venue: Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich

"Di rigori armato il seno"

Track length4:58

$0.85

$1.15

Strauss, R: Die schweigsame Frau, Op.80, TrV 265 / Act 2

Work length8:02

Album only

Kurt Böhme (bass (vocal)), Fritz Wunderlich (tenor), Ingeborg Hallstein (soprano)
Muenchen Orchester Der Bayerischen Staatsoper
Heinz Wallberg
Recorded: 1962-08-12
Recording Venue: Prinzregententheater, Munich

Du süssester Engel

Track length8:02

Album only

Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail, K.384 / Act 1

Work length8:22

Album only

Fritz Wunderlich (tenor)
Wiener Staatsoper
Josef Krips
Recorded: 1965-10-04
Recording Venue: Staatsoper, Vienna (Wien)

"Hier soll ich dich denn sehen"

Track length2:52

Album only

"Konstanze, dich wiederzusehen" - "O wie ängstlich, o wie feurig"

Track length5:30

Album only

About
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About

“The ‘sudden’ impact of this artist’s singing is so spontaneous, so dead right, we just dispense with all the analytical microscopy, sit back and delight in the forceful combination of a sunlit Mediterranean voice quality blended with a Central European musical and dramatic intelligence that only a truly charismatic tenor can provide. Amongst his amazing achievements he certainly proved that Mozart could be done with directness and clarity without sacrificing any of the interpretive sophistication that composer demanded, and he showed a whole generation that Richard Strauss did not present insurmountable vocal challenges to tenors who know what they’re doing.” Joseph Calleja

Fritz Wunderlich, Germany's greatest tenor in the 20th century - and one of the greatest tenors of all time - would have celebrated his 80th birthday on 26th September 2010. We commemorate the occasion with an exceptional album of Magic Moments - arias and scenes, almost all first-time releases, taken from live performances at the Vienna State Opera and the Bavarian State Opera, recorded between 1963 and 1966, the year of Wunderlich's death.

The music is by Mozart (The Magic Flute, The Abduction from the Seraglio, Don Giovanni), Rossini (The Barber of Seville - sung in German!) and Richard Strauss (Capriccio, Der Rosenkavalier, Daphne, Die schweigsame Frau) - full details above.

The live quality of the recordings - meticulously remastered by our engineers at the Emil Berliner Studios - gives an extra frisson to Wunderlich's calling-card, the Portrait Aria from Magic Flute (Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön), to the high jinks of The Barber, and the Italian Tenor's Aria from Rosenkavalier.

Also present on the recording: the great Anneliese Rothenberger, who died just recently (Pamina) and Lucia Popp in Strauss's Capriccio

Conductors include Herbert von Karajan, Karl Böhm, Josef Krips and Georges Prêtre. Many of the performances are the from the premières of the productions in question.

Artists

Orchester der Bayerischen Staatsoper, Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper, Wiener Symphoniker, Orchester der Bayer. Staatsoper, Fritz Rieger, Karl Böhm, Georges Prêtre, Rudolf Kempe, Heinz Wallberg, Josef Krips

Reviews

January 2011

The pearl of great price...the Mozart tenor who could sound both elegant and manly...His 'Il mio tesoro' drops not a semiquaver and takes the long phrases with confident ease. At all times he makes his voice an instrument of feeling...he even makes us believe that Don Ottavio is at heart a man of action

January 2011

Live performances demand more from a singer than those made in the studio, particularly how their voices strike an accommodation with the auditorium size. We can hear what Wunderlich really sounded like in various theatres and it becomes even more evident what a loss his premature death meant to the operatic world.

12th December 2011

the golden-toned Strauss items — the duet from the famous recording of Daphne with Gueden, the Italian opera singers number from Capriccio and the glorious tenor showpiece from a Kempe-conducted Rosenkavalier — are incomparable.

Fritz Wunderlich: Live on Stage

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