What Was I Thinking? Wunderlich's "An die ferne Geliebte" Revisited

About a year and a half ago, I did a column on Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte. In it, I reviewed several tenor performances, and promised to talk about the baritones next. Well, this is not about the baritones. (I did recently hear one baritone version I was not too thrilled about, but I’ll save that for later.)

Anyway, in my review, I said of FW, "He may seem slightly less involved in the text than the other performers."* 

What was I thinking? I don’t know. Maybe it was Beethoven Burnout. Today, I happened upon this version again and it moved me nearly to tears. I felt Fritz was really inside both the music and the text. The way he paints a phrase here and there, and stretches and inflects, and caresses certain words. 

You can hear it right in the first song. Some singers make this strophic song sounds so...strophic. (Here's stanza 1, OK now we're repeating the music with different words, ah one note is changed... maybe...) Fritz makes every stanza sound fresh, almost as if the song is through-composed; and when he bends it like Beethoven in the third stanza, he is definitely involved in this Poet's story!

The man is a genius—Fritz I mean. (Beethoven is generally acknowledged, so I wasn’t going there again.) Fritz’s poet is wistful yet hopeful about seeing his love again. But as the cycle continues, he gradually realizes he really isn’t going to see her ever again. 

Here it is again, for your consideration:

*To be fair to myself, I did add, "But in reality, he is just way more subtle."

Gratuitous Friday - The Wunderlich/Ludwig Non-HIP Edition

Earworm's hankering for another recording of Giulio Cesare made me (for some strange reason) think of this performance from 1966*. So, of course, I needed to track it down. In this clip, Fritz Wunderlich and Christa Ludwig as Sesto and Cornelia, sing "Madre...Son nata a lagrimar." But acutally, in this performance from Munich (with the Münchner Philharmoniker, Ferdinand Leitner, conducting) it's in German: "Mutter...Nur weinen lernte ich." 

These performances are not what we'd consider "Historically Informed," though I think they were pretty HIP for the time (pace N. Harnoncourt). Some da capos are cut, but the ones that remain are ornamented. Not ornamented in the way we expect today, (I am not sure what historical period these ornaments would fit into), but I think it's fascinating to hear that they were making an effort to authenticize in a modern setting. 

And of course, here, Sesto is a tenor, but what a tenor!! The main point here is the marvelous singing from both mother and son, and the opportunity to hear these two great artists singing in duet. It will never supplant the most wonderful performances of mezzos, sopranos, or counter tenors singing Sesto, but it's not meant to. 

And for a bonus, here are Walter Berry as Caesar and Lucia Popp as Cleopatra (she's off- or above-stage, which is why she sounds more distant and echo-y).

Gratuitous Friday – Fritz Wunderlich ist Ferrando (Italienischer Oper auf Deutsch )

In the great tradition of opera in the vernacular, here is FW singing Un aura amorosa as Dem Odem der Liebe. Had he lived longer, he likely would have re-recorded much of his repertoire in the original languages. But we are fortunate to have so many recordings from his tragically short life and career.

And influential? I can't think of a tenor who does not name Fritz Wunderlich as an idol and/or influence. And there are more than a few basses, baritones, mezzos, and sopranos who also look up to Fritz as a consummate vocal artist. 

Gratuitous Friday Special Edition – Die Ferne Geliebte is Closer Than You Think

You know how you hear a piece maybe one time—maybe it was a long time ago—and you never really think about it again? Then all of a sudden it's everywhere you look (listen). I finally downloaded Christian Gerhaher's recording of Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte (To the Distant Beloved) (mostly for the Berg and Schoenberg selections) and rediscovered the joys of this song cycle.

Beethoven's little work allegedly started the whole German song cycle craze. Most song cycles we know comprise many individual songs, and this one does, too, but Beethoven's prototype is a continuous stetting. Many recitalists will program just a few songs from a Schubert or Schumann or Wolf cycle, but I can't imagine anyone excerpting one song from this set. The final stanza of the opening song even comes back at the end—very cyclical.

Gratuitous Friday – Fritz Wunderlich is Lensky (More Opera in the Wrong Language)

Heartbreaking, smooth, beautiful… Wait…what? Is he singing in German??? Who cares? It's awesome singing. I’m not saying it doesn't sound better in Russian. Of course it does! But if we insisted in everything being sung only in the original language, we’d miss a lot of gorgeous—and in particular, vintage—singing. Thanks to many recordings like these, Fritz still lives!

"Kuda, kuda vy udalilis" from Eugene Onegin

(Wohin, wohin?)