Fritz Wunderlich (tenor)
Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks & Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Kurt Eichhorn, Siegfried Köhler, Willy Mattes, Hans Moltkau & Meinhard von Zallinger
rec. various venues, Munich, 1959-1966. Mono
BR KLASSIK 900315 LP [45.49]
This album consists of previously unreleased material
from the archives of Bayerischer Rundfunk. It is not stated as such
but all the tracks sound like mono recordings, proved by the fact that
it all apparently emanated from my front-centre speaker which was, of
course, not even turned on or indeed connected! Though the back of the
sleeve uses the subtitle 'Great Singers Live' it seems
doubtful if many of these were live. Obviously Wunderlich, as a highly
successful tenor, made many concert appearances singing this material,
some of which was for films as well as for the stage. The whole LP falls
firmly into the category which one has to describe as 'very good
if you like this sort of thing.' Had the 'Three Tenors'
been a 1960s phenomenon then Wunderlich would have been present for
he has all the panache and sheer heft to wow the audiences. His mostly
accurate high notes vary from impressive to breathtaking. The quality
of his voice was truly magnificent and it does help to have this rather
lightweight material sung as well as this. The problem that is bound
to lurk behind the disc is that one is listening to the same sort of
thing throughout nearly 46 minutes. Listening to the two sides on separate
occasions might keep it all sounding fresher.
The gatefold sleeve prints, in German and English, a short appreciation
of Wunderlich's career. It was cut short by an accident in 1966
when he was not quite 36 years old. His discography reflects a very
wide range of repertoire covering all the genres from solo lieder to
opera to oratorio. My personal favourite is Mahler's Das
Lied von der Erde where he joined Christa Ludwig and Otto Klemperer
to make, perhaps, the best recording of the stereo era of that masterwork.
Here he is strictly in popular mode singing tuneful extracts, mostly
from operetta. Singing of this quality is always a pleasure, however
much one might wish for more meat on the bone.
The LP has been produced with extremely quiet surfaces and was hyperclean
when I opened the sleeve. Static soon coated it with dust particles
proving that BR-Klassik did not pack it in an anti-static sleeve. A
few minutes cleaning and a new inner-sleeve soon solved that problem.
The heavy, (180 grams+ on my kitchen scales) and very flat pressing
is well centred, if not absolutely perfect and it will certainly satisfy
the vinyl collector. The mono masters from which this issue was made
reproduce the voice cleanly but the orchestra is always rather backward
and sounds frankly a bit primitive compared to the excellent stereo
sound being produced at this time by such as EMI, Decca and Deutsche
Grammophon.
Dave Billinge
Disc contents
Leo FALL (1873-1925)
O Rose von Stambul (from Die Rose von Stambul) [4.02]
Eduard KÜNNEKE (1885-1953)
Ich träume mit offenen Augen (from Die lockende Flamme) [2.42]
Das Lied vom Leben des Schrenk (from Die Grosse Sünderin) [4.29]
Franz, LEHÁR (1870-1948)
Schön ist die Welt (from Schön ist die Welt) [3.58]
Albert LORTZING (1801-1851)
Lebe wohl, mein flandrisch Mädchen (from Zar und Zimmermann)
[4.59]
Lied des Veit: Vater, Mutter, Schestern, Bruder (from Undine)
[3.11]
Man wird ja einmal nur geboren (from Der Waffenschmied) 3.35]
Willy MATTES (1916-2002)
Melodia con passione [3.47]
Carl MILLÖCKER (1842-1899)
Wie schon ist alles (from Die Dubarry) [3.56]
Mein Weg führt immer mich zu Dir zurück (from Die Dubarry)
[3.27]
Mischa SPOLIANSKY (1898-1985)
Heute Nacht oder nie (from Das Lied einer Nacht) [3.08]
Robert STOLZ (1880-1975)
Ob blond, ob braun, Ich liebe die Frau'n [2.30]
Johann STRAUSS II (1825-1899)
Treu sein, das liegt mir nicht (from Eine Nacht in Venedig)
[2.05]
