This release is a new installment of the SWR’s comprehensive series with recordings of the one-time tenor Fritz Wunderlich. This album contains a unique collection of Early Music repertoire written before the era of J. S. Bach. The recordings date back to the 1940s and the 1950s, and have been digitally remastered to ensure an exquisite audio experience. Although he never realized his due as a truly international star in his lifetime, Fritz Wunderlich has since become a favorite of opera lovers the world over. One has only to listen to his stunning voice to become a devotee for life. His vocal quality and strength combined with effortless expression and touching lyrical beauty make him one of the truly great tenors of the 20th century and probably of all time.

This is the fifth and last installment of the complete Debussy Piano Works with the pianist Michael Korstick. The first four volumes were highly acclaimed by critics worldwide, a new dimension of Debussy cycles has been achieved. The booklet text is written by the Debussy expert Prof. Robert Orledge. Michael Korstick received his first piano lessons at the age of 9 and was first prize winner of the "Jugend musiziert" competition in Cologne at the age of 11. After graduating from high school he entered the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Cologne as a student of Jürgen Tröster, and in 1974 he became a student of Hans Leygraf in Hanover. In the same year he took master classes from the Russian pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva and subsequently worked with her on several occasions. He made his formal concert début in Cologne in 1975, performing Beethoven's sonatas op.106 and op.111. Michael Korstick has made more than 50 CD recordings so far, among them most notably Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas (the complete edition was released in 2012). He has been the recipient of Germany's Echo Klassik prize in 2005, the MIDEM Classical Award Cannes in 2009, as well as of six "Awards of the German Record Critics", most recently in November 2014.

The legendary conductor Kurt Sanderling has always been a great admirer of Rachmaninov’s music. This is a recording form 1995 of Sanderling conducting Rachmaninov’s 3rd Symphony. The eminent German conductor, Kurt Sanderling, was born to a Jewish family in Arys in East Prussia and took piano lessons as part of a private education. For his further studies he moved the short distance north to Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) and then to Berlin. When the Nazis rose to power, Sanderling’s world was turned upside down. He left for Moscow to live with an uncle, and it was there that he made his mark in a debut concert with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra. It is therefore no surprise that Rachmaninov’s music spoke so deeply to him. He led a seven decade career, and passed away in 2011.

Hans Werner Henze’s choral works are not central to his oeuvre, but are in many respects fundamentally reflective of his artistic philosophy. Like all his other music, his choral works were meant to be true to real life and clearly understood by an audience. This was a fundamental diference between Henze and other composers who were active after the Second World War. While he did indeed use the same compositional techniques as his colleagues- dodecaphony, serial composition, neo-classical tonal colors- he always considered traditional forms of expression. The three choral works on this album date from 1947, 1963, and 1978. Even here, the music reflects traditional elements of western music. In recording these pieces, the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgrt and the Ensemble Modern again make a key contribution to the music of an important German composer, alongside representative works by other composers such as Charles Ives, Elliott Carter, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and many more that have already been recorded by this first-class choir.

Dies Bildnis is bezaubernd schon, Tamino’s famous aria from Mozart’s Zauberflote, has become the signature piece of Fritz Wunderlich’s 13-year career. It was his first stage role as a student on July 21 1954, and it was the last piece he sang on September 5, 1966 during a guest performance at the Stuttgart State Opera in Edinburg. Wunderlich continuously worked on this aria to perfect it. The recording on this album is from April 17, 1959. Most interesting are the excerpts from Schubert operas, including previously unreleased arias from Fierrabras, and excerpts from the generally unknown opera Die Wunderinsel. Music journalist Kurt Honolka combined pieces by Schubert, mostly from Alfonso und Estrella, with parts of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The resulting pastiche was first performed in January 1958 at the Stuttgart Opera and recorded later that year.

REVIEW:

The German radio archives seem almost inexhaustible when it comes to recordings with Fritz Wunderlich. This compilation opens with the Tamino's aria Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön from Magic Flute. The recording was made in Stuttgart on 17 April 1959 by a 28-year-old singer, and he was even then a fully-fledged lyrical tenor with all the characteristics we expect: the beautiful youthful tone, the perfect legato, the exemplary enunciation, the natural phrasing. Much of the rest of the contents on CD 1 is fairly rare repertoire, with Wudnerlich continuing to shine throughout.

CD 2 opens with the Prisoners’ Chorus from Beethoven’s Fidelio, where Wunderlich in 1957 was one of the two prisoners who had a solo. Well sung of course, and Hans Günter Nöcker’s mighty bass is also heard to good effect. The rest of the disc contains fifteen excerpts from Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten—all the recitatives, arias and ensembles where Wunderlich takes part. I can’t find that this is a very good way of enjoying this masterly music, but it is well sung—the other soloists are soprano Agnes Giebel, whose silvery voice is an asset, and bass Kieth Engen in rather monumental form.

The original tapes have been carefully remastered by Gabriele Starke and Boris Kellenbenz and the end product is utterly attractive. There are informative liner notes by Lothar Brandt and several of the tracks have never before been issued.

– MusicWeb International

While there is no disputing Richter’s extraordinary technique, what set his interpretations apart was his ability to immerse himself completely into the music he performed, allowing the purity of the composer’s original vision to dominate his musical choices. Richter himself said: “The interpreter is really an executer, carrying out the composer’s intentions to the letter. He doesn’t add anything that isn’t already in the work. If he is talented, he allows us to glimpse the essence of the work that is in itself a thing of genius and that is reflected through him. He shouldn’t dominate the music, but should dissolve into it.” This extraordinary approach is on full display in this programme. Collectors have long regarded Richter’s performances of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces as definitive, while his Ravel emphasizes the inherent neo-classical structure underlying the virtuosic display.

This further installment of SWR's comprehensive series of Fritz Wunderlich's recordings contains a unique compilation of operetta arias. One of Fritz Wunderlich’s most fascinating qualities was his incredible range of musical skills. He was probably Germany’s greatest tenor who could perform virtually anything in the repertoire for high male voice – from Schlager music to oratorio arias; from Mozart to music of the 20th century; from the greatest tenor hits of all times to unknown gems. His musicality and his seriousness as an artist turned everything he sang into something extraordinary. The SWR, the broadcasting institution in South West Germany, has countless and unique historical music recordings in its archives, the first of which date from the late 1940s. Step by step, we carefully select recordings from this huge fund to be released. The sound engineer Gabriele Starke and the engineer Boris Kellenbenz take care of all technical matters in connection with the old tapes on their way from the archives to the studio and to the finished master copy for the release. In the SWR studios they carefully edit the original tapes and use a variety of technical means to create a master. The result is stunning quality.

To help artists develop exciting projects that are difficult to realize under existing conditions is the goal of the SWR NEWJazzMeeting. This legendary sound laboratory for jazz of the SWR was founded in 1966 by Joachim-Ernst Berendt and takes place every year. The idea: musicians who always wanted to perform with one another but who, for a variety of reasons, have so far not been able to do so, develop a concert programme in the broadcaster’s studios that the SWR then presents in several concerts in its transmission area. In the course of its fifty-year history, the SWR NEWJazz Meeting has in this way served as a driving force for new trends in jazz. “I see a particular value in exploring the music of my South African homeland and making it fit for the future.” Kyle Shepherd, born in 1987, is the most innovative and important pianist of the contemporary South African jazz scene. His sound boldly makes reference to the roots of township jazz and the Goema Beat of his hometown of Cape Town. Nevertheless, he refuses to be put into a pigeonhole; his horizon extends far beyond his beloved Cape Jazz. “It’s cool to choose the African thing in conceptual questions. But just as cool to choose something else.” Kyle Shepherd, the most innovative and important pianist of the contemporary South African jazz scene, is the curator of the 2016 SWR NEWJazz Meeting. At his wish, four young jazz musicians from South Africa and the Benin-born guitarist and singer Lionel Loueke (who since 2001 has been living in the United States) met in November 2016 at the SWR’s Baden-Baden radio studios. The musicians named their project “Sound Portraits From Contemporary Africa”. The African improvisers experimented for five days and developed a concert programme that they then presented on a tour in the SWR broadcasting area.

Hans Rosbaud was greatly admired for his discipline, a capacity for enthusiasm, detailed knowledge of orchestral instruments and his faithfulness to the scores. He did not consider himself a champion exclusively of modern music, but rather of the entire repertoire. While he conducted many Mozart operas, he also gave equal attention to the works of Richard Wagner, Anton Bruckner and Gustav Mahler. This release, which contains several unpublished recordings, surveys a different Rosbaud from the new music specialist. We discover his interpretations of overtures from the early Romantic period, plus concert pieces by Carl Maria von Weber and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Weber’s overtures are considered virtuosic orchestral “treats.” Rosbaud puts his own distinctive slant on the music even during extrovert passages. He doesn’t exaggerate speeds, allowing the different instrumental groups to develop the themes to the fullest extent; the bolero and polonaise rhythms of Preziosa and the ultra-romantic sound of the horns in Der Freischutz are showcased to maximum effect. The flowing passages in Mendelssohn’s overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream Op. 21 are executed with precision and without pedantry. Rosbaud imbues the 17-year-old Mendelssohn’s masterpiece with dreamlike, intangible qualities that make this music truly unique. The scherzo and the nocturne of the incidental music Op. 61 are performed with equal care and precision.

One of the great violinists of the twentieth century, Henryk Szeryng was an artist greatly celebrated during his lifetime, but is sadly known only to experts today. Looking back, his reputation may have been overshadowed by some of his contemporaries, but in terms of his flawless technique and the power and beauty of his tone, Szeryng unquestionably remains one of the great masters of his era. These two live concert recordings from December 7, 1969 feature performances by the South West German Chamber Orchestra Pforzheim. Szerying, as both soloist and conductor, stamps his natural authority on the music from the very first note, with his straightforward approach and clear sense of direction driving the entire ensemble. The soloist’s idiosyncratic nuances of tempo infect the whole structure, while his exuberant playing dominates the entire performance. In Vivaldi’s ever-popular Four Seasons, Szeryng applies clear and often abrupt contrasts: heavy marcato, lively staccato, flawlessly balanced legato and, above all, his consummate tenuto, which seamlessly links every bow change. This last trait also thoroughly distinguishes his Mozart playing from almost anything to which our ears are accustomed today. When it comes to Mozart, we can admire the naturalness of his interpretation and his choice of tempi, which are not adopted merely for effect, but govern the logic and clarity of the articulation.

Sammy Nestico, the composer-arranger known for his contributions to the Count Basie Orchestra library and whose name is familiar to anyone who’s played in a big band since the 1960s, recently has gone through a highly creative and productive phase. The rise of Nestico’s international profile has been sparked by a period of collaboration with the SWR Big Band of Germany that has produced several masterful albums, including No Time Like The Present (2004), Basie-Cally Sammy (2005), Fun Time (2009) and Fun Time And More (2011). The productive streak continues with this year’s A Cool Breeze, which finds the perpetually developing, 93-year-old orchestrator combining swing, soul, funk, fusion and symphonic expressions in a stylistic manner that’s distinctly modern yet undeniably Nestico. Unlike his previous SWR collaborations, Nestico (who’s based in San Diego) wasn’t able to travel to Germany for these recording sessions, but digital technology allowed him to participate via Skype and high-speed audio file transfer. His signature syncopations, volleying counterpoint passages, tensely stacked fourths, dramatic dynamics and tasteful manner of combining instrumental timbres are all manifest in the SWR Big Band’s impeccable, inspired performance. These dedicated musicians have become so adept at finessing and interpreting Nestico’s work that they actually transcend what’s on the printed page. They turn his carefully crafted charts into memorable works of art that will have toes tappin’ and fingers snappin’ for decades to come. - DownBeat Magazine Editors' Pick

Hans Rosbaud was the chief conductor of the Southwest Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1948 until his death in 1962. He transformed the orchestra, later renamed as the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg, into a leading European ensemble. His interests lay in both contemporary music and the classical and romantic symphonic repertoire. This new series from the SWR Classic label presents largely unpublished recordings by Rosbaud of classical and romantic repertoire, starting with overtures by Richard Wagner.

This album is the fifth and final installment of Maurice Ravel's Orchestral Works, bringing to a close the highly acclaimed cycle by the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart and its chief conductor Stephane Deneve. Ravel's opera L'enfant et les sortileges is the second of his two operas and is considered a neglected masterpiece. The libretto is by the famous French author Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette.

This album is one of the most important symphonies by Shostakovich. This is the fifth Shostakovich release featuring the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart and Andrey Boreyko. Many considered it a "wonderful, passionate performance."

Les Vendredis is a collection of string quartets by several Russian composers, who played a key role at the famous Friday evening concerts organized by the music publisher Belaieff at the end of the 19th century. Alexander Glazunov, Anatoli Liadov and Rimsky-Korsakov are among the illustrious names that formed that musical society. Belaieff, son and heir of a wealthy wood trader, was a music enthusiast and an excellent violist. Thus, it was only natural that he hosted string quartet concerts in his house and commissioned composers for new string quartet works. Some of these works were published in 1899 by Belaieff’s own publishing house, which he had founded in the 1880s. The works of this collection continue to fascinate to this day, but are, unfortunately, only rarely performed. The Szymanowski Quartet, who are known for their exciting and cleverly compiled concert programmes, perform this repertoire with both pleasure and passion. Their technical perfection suits the musical challenges and their soulful performance highlights the lyrical emotions of these Russian musical treasures.