When BBC Music Magazine in 2008 invited sixteen noted
opera critics to vote for the best tenors ever, Fritz Wunderlich
was ranked number four, after Plácido Domingo, Enrico
Caruso and Luciano Pavarotti and with Jussi Björling as
number five. One can argue that what polls of this kind show
is the taste of the participants rather than the absolute truth.
Who can state with certainty that Domingo - or Caruso, or Björling
- they have also been ranked number one in other polls - is the
all-time-greatest? There is however some kind of consensus that
in these lists that a certain number of singers always appear
there, and of the twenty names on this BBC list, I would certainly
have included at least a dozen of them on my list - though not
necessarily in the same order. But Wunderlich would certainly
be close to the top for me as well. Few singers in recorded history
have sung with such melting beauty, such elegance and very often
with such involvement.
He left a vast recorded legacy when he died in an accident in
1966. He was then only in his mid-thirties and should have been
able to sing for at least another twenty years. During the last
few years of his life he was a Deutsche Grammophon recording
artist and took part in legendary recordings of Die Zauberflöte (Karl
Böhm), Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Eugen
Jochum) and Wozzeck (Böhm again), his Weihnachtoratorium
with Karl Richter is justly famous and even more so Die Schöpfung with
Karajan, which wasn’t fully finished when he died: the
arias were recorded but Werner Krenn was brought in for the recitatives.
Wunderlich was also a fine Lieder singer and recorded both Die
schöne Müllerin and Dichterliebe.
But he had come off to an auspicious start as early as 1955,
when he was signed up by the Württemberg Staatstheater in
Stuttgart and took part in his first complete opera recording,
singing three roles in August Wenzinger’s epoch-making La
favola d’Orfeo. And even during these early years he
recorded a lot, opera as well as lighter music. What we hear
on the present disc is a fine offering of opera and operetta
arias and four duets with the fine soprano Friederike Sailer,
who was also a member of the ensemble in Stuttgart. None of these
duets are real standard fare. Der Bettelstudent and Der
Zarewitsch are no doubt played but these particular duets
are not among the best known numbers, and both Künneke’s Zauberin
Lola and Dostal’s Monika were new to me. I believe
that the arias from Der Waffenschmied are also unfamiliar
to many readers outside the German speaking world and Strauss’s Der
lustige Krieg has been rarely performed, even though it was
a success when it was first performed on 25 November 1881 at
the Theater
an der Wien. It was performed 69 times during its first run
and was during Strauss’s lifetime one of his most frequently
played operettas. Marchese Sebastiano’s waltz in the second
act, Nur für Natur, is arguably the hit number.
It must be said right away that Fritz Wunderlich was ideal for
the repertoire on this disc. As a Mozart singer he had few superiors
- Simoneau, Dermota and Gedda the only serious competitors -
and in the youthful German tenor repertoir and in operetta it
was again Gedda that could challenge his supremacy. Both singers
were natural heirs to Richard Tauber and both had more brillant
voices.
Some thunderous noise at the beginning of Dies Bildnis from Die
Zauberflöte seems to indicate that this is from a live
event, and the liner notes tell us that it was a broadcast performance
of the opera from 1958, conducted by a young Bernard Haitink,
and in the role of the first boy, no less a star than Elly Ameling
could be heard. Though Wunderlich sings with his customary elegance
and sense of style, he sounds uncharacteristically strained here.
Possibly he wasn’t sufficiently warmed up, since the second
aria, Wie stark ist nicht dein Zauberton, is superb in
every respect. The sound in these two excerpts is a little dim,
whereas the Zaide aria, recorded two years earlier in
the Liederhalle, Stuttgart, during the Mozart celebrations is
much better. The aria from Die Jahreszeiten is powerful
and expressive and the well known aria from Martha is
sung with wonderful legato.
Albert Lortzing’s operas are not very much in vogue at
the moment, though actually both Undine and Der Waffenschmied are
performed this season in German opera houses. All three arias
are attractive and especially Vater, Mutter from Undine is
lovely.
The highlight - for me anyway - is Nur für Natur from Der
lustige Krieg. Sung here with glorious tone and Viennese
swagger it stands out as something of the best Strauss ever wrote
- and it is recorded in spectacular stereo. Als flotter Geist from Der
Zigeunerbaron is executed with tremendous ardour and elan,
only Gedda can be mentioned in the same breath.
Whether Wunderlich was the fourth best tenor ever is always open
to debate. That he was one of the very best tenors can never
be questioned and this disc is a wonderful - and cheap - reminder
of his capacity in recordings made when he was in his mid-late
twenties.
Göran Forsling
Details
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756 - 1791)
Die Zauberflöte
1. Dies Bildnis ist beazubernd schön [4:21]
2. Wie stark ist nicht dein Zaubertön [3:05]
Zaide
3. Ja, nun lass das Schicksal wüten [3:38]
Joseph HAYDN (1732 - 1809)
Die Jahreszeiten
4. Gefesselt steht der breite See [6:34]
Friedrich von FLOTOW (1812 - 1883)
Martha
5. Ach so fromm [2:41]
Albert LORTZING (1801 - 1851)
Undine
6. Vater, Mutter, Schwestern, Brüder [3:43]
Der Waffenschmied
7. Man wird ja einmal nur geboren [4:51]
8. War einst ein junger Spriinginsfeld [3:50]
Johann STRAUSS II (1825 - 1899)
Der lustige Krieg
9. Nur für Natur [3:14
Der Zigeunerbaron
10. Als flotter Geist [2:40]
Carl ZELLER (1842 - 1898)
Der Obersteiger
11. Sei nicht bös [3:22]
Karl MILLÖCKER (1842 - 1899)
Der Bettelstudent
12. Nur das eine bitt’ich [3:59]
Franz LEHÁR (1870 - 1948)
Der Zarewitsch
13. Hab’nur dich allein [4:50]
Eduard KÜNNEKE (1885 - 1953)
Zauberin Lola
14. Du warst von Angeginn [4:18]
Nico DOSTAL (1895 - 1981)
Monika
15. Ein Walzer zu zweien [4:14]
Fritz Wunderlich (tenor), Friederike Sailer (soprano) (12-15);
Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra/Bernard Haitink (1, 2);
Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart/Alfons
Rischer (3, 6-8), Hans Müller-Kray (4); Berlin Symphony Orchestra/Artur
Rother (5); Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra/Fritz Mareczek (9, 11, 12-15); Chorus
and Orchestra/Werner Schmidt-Boelke (10)
rec. 1956-1958 
