This album features a recording made during a performance at the Prinzregententheater in Munich on January 18, 1962. It was directed by Rudolf Hartmann and the performance was given, as was usual in those days, in German. The original analogue tapes have been stored at the Fritz Wunderlich Society in Kusel (in the Rhineland-Palatinate), and have been restored by TechneAudio in Baden-Württemberg. Some specialists suspect that the recordings were made by Fritz Wunderlich himself, a great fan of the latest technology. Despite costly and careful restoration of the tapes, some defects and intrusive artefacts on the mono tapes, some of which are damaged, are clearly audible. However, the historic significance of this recording certainly justifies its release. Not surprisingly, Fritz Wunderlich (1930-1966) in the role of Ernesto receives the greatest attention. Probably Germany’s greatest tenor knew just how to cultivate the love-sick bachelor, as he did with all his roles, and to breathe life into the character with his inimitable voice. In addition to lyric qualities, the role demands other skills such as the canto fiorito style of ornamented singing of the nineteenth century.

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.

This album is the sixth installment of the series dedicated to the SWR recordings of Fritz Wunderlich. It contains arias composed by less known contemporaries of Mozart, including two arias by Alessandro Scarlatii and Handel. Fritz Wunderlich had a bright, albeit entirely too short career. Born to a violinist mother and choir director father, he was enveloped in music from an early age. He was urged to pursue classical voice training by a theater troupe who heard him singing as they passed by the bakery where he worked. He was granted a scholarship to the Freiburg Music Academy in Breisgau, and studied there from 1950 to 1955. While there he also studied the classical horn, which explains his incredible breath control. During the remaining decade of his life Fritz Wunderlich gained respect as a Mozart singer, Bach interpreter, and Bel Canto and light opera performer.

A timely re-issue of the legendary 1960 live concert performance in Salzburg featuring a dazzling firmament of legendary singers all in the prime of their singing careers: Leontyne Price, Eberhard Wächter, Hilde Rössel-Majdan, Fritz Wunderlich and Walter Berry. With the great Herbert von Karajan leading the Vienna Philharmonic and the soaring Wiener Singverein, this is a most distinguished performance of Mozart's Requiem.

Franz Schubert's rarely performed opera, more appropriately dubbed a Singspiel, Fierrabras, is heard here in a fine-sounding, well-sung 1959 Bern, Switzerland radio broadcast concert performance that features the one and only Fritz Wunderlich in the leading role. One of Myto's bestselling titles despite the lack of name recognition of nearly every other cast member, this recording of Fierrebras returns to the marketplace where its competition is slight and interest in anything Schubert is and will always remain high.

Heinz Wallberg's intimate familiarity with the work (he conducted it on almost fifty separate occasions) can be heard throughout this 1961 performance of Richard Strauss' operatic masterpiece Der Rosenkavalier. Captured live at the Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1961 with a stellar cast that included Regine Crespin and Fritz Wunderlich, among other Straussian notables, and offered here in 24bit/96kHz re-mastered sound, this is a recording to be set alongside those of Clemens Krauss, Karl Böhm and Herbert von Karajan, all famed and important 20th c. Strauss interpreters.

In the Summer of 1961, German Conductor Heinz Walberg Was in Charge of Teatro Colo?N's German Season and Decided to Present, Amongst Other Operatic Works, Mozart's Entfu?Hrung Aus Dem Serail. From a Time Prior to the Onrush of Historically-Informed Performances of Classical-Era Works, This Old-Fashioned (In the Best Sense of That Term) Production Featured a Cast Including Fritz Wunderlich As Belmonte, the Revered Anneliese Rothenberger, Renate Holm, Eugenio Valori, Who Sang at This Theater for Three Decades and Kurt Bohme, Whose Singing Career Lasted in Excess of Fifty Years.

In April 2012, the Schwetzingen Festival celebrates its 60th birthday. On this occasion, a very special oratorio recording from the festival's early years has been selected - a vintage performance of Haydn's "The Seasons", featuring the immortal Fritz Wunderlich!

Haydn wrote his oratorio "The Seasons" between the years 1799 and 1800. The work is based on the poem "The Seasons" by James Thomson in the German translation of the Baron van Swieten. The contemporary descriptions of nature and genre scenes are a work of perfection, insuring the composition's enduring popularity.

This early festival recording is a true time-capsule, recorded on May 24th, 1959 featuring in addition to Wunderlich, the vocal artistry of Agnes Giebel, and Kieth Engen, who together bring Haydn's secular oratorio to vivid life.