Various Artists - Gloria / Various - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Various Artists - Orchl Spectacular [COMPACT DISCS] date 08/10/2004

Compositions attributed to him stretch across the centuries, from the beginning of the Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, and into the early stages of the Baroque period. His music was by turns spiritual and secular, romantic and raucous, traditional and forward-looking. She was equally at home writing Gregorian chant, songs for troubadours, and instrumental dance music. He assimilated elements from both Western and Eastern cultures, tapping into musical traditions from England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Greece, North Africa and beyond. You name it, she could write it. Needless to say, we know virtually nothing about him. No artist sketched his features. No poet sang her praises. No registrar listed his birth.

Stories about Wunderlich's meteoric rise to success, his incredibly heavy workload or his seemingly effortless acquisition of new repertoire have been told again and again - sometimes painting an idealized and sometimes a distorted picture of the artist. The nine installments of the SWR retrospective that have been released by SWR CLASSIC to this day feature Fritz Wunderlich as a singer of songs, (an unequalled) Mozart tenor, a brilliant interpreter of the greatest tenor hits, a fascinating singer of operettas and as a tasteful interpreter of light music, to name but a few of the genres that made up his repertoire. Though Fritz Wunderlich remains until today a widely appreciated and admired singer, there are some facets to his artistic side that are still relatively unknown. The tenth and last installment presents Fritz Wunderlich as an interpreter of the big works of sacred music, an aspect that has to be considered as an essential part of his artistic profile.