299.00 PLN

2 LP-180G 33rpm:

Nr kat.: 138219
Label  : ClearAudio Records

Grand Prix des Discophiles 1967 Orphée d'Or 1967 2-LP Box Set from the Deutsche Grammophon Vaults! Mastered by Clearaduo Germany 'Do you know any merry music? I do not!” Where else does Franz Schubert’s statement obtain justification, if not in his song cycle “Die schöne Müllerin” (“The Fair Miller-Maid”)? Twenty “Lieder” (songs) that announce love and anguish and that, against their tragic background, with all their simplicity and perfection, represent Schubert’s highly peculiar mood of a homeless artist. The rushing of the millstream, interlocutor of the young miller who wanders the countryside, forms the unifying bond for the singular Lieder. But if you only see the popular touch in Schubert’s music, you neglect the opportunity to become aware of the other sphere that no other composer could hide as subtly behind an ostensible idyll as Schubert did. The “Encores” from “Heidenröslein” (“The Hedge Rose”) to “Der Einsame” (“The Lonesome”) mirror the cosmos of the romantic artist looking for the meaning in a stranger world. Fritz Wunderlich was fully-aware of the special challenge behind the Lieder: “I came to the Lied very late. Not because I did not have an affinity to it, but because I knew that I could only sing Lieder when I had gained full control over my voice. That is the most important prerequisite for the Lied. You cannot have even the smallest technical difficulty under any circumstances. The Lied is my measure of whether I am really able to sing. I have been giving Lieder recitals for some years now because I feel that I am gradually learning to truly sing.” Fritz Wunderlich (1930-1966) epitomises the lyric tenor and is considered to be one of the greatest German singers ever – and rightly so! With this interpretation of Schubert’s “Die schöne Müllerin”, he proves to be an excellent Lieder singer, too. His clear, bright voice, well-balanced in every register, never misses the brilliancy and is always paired with artistic maturity, compelling intensity and elegance – an expressiveness sought-after until today! In July, 2006, the 40th anniversary of this recording is being commemorated: This most eminent interpretation of Franz Schubert’s song cycle had been recorded from 2nd to 5th July, 1966, only eleven weeks before the tragic accidental death of Wunderlich that shocked the world. But until today, the recording sounds as prevailing as then –Wunderlich’s “Fair Miller-Maid” hasn’t lost anything of her attractiveness. Not to forget the close co-operation with Hubert Giesen, his fatherly friend and “a luckily chosen accompanist, whose unison with the singer and sense of musical joy” has been of particular importance to Wunderlich. This record truly deserves to be called “One of the Legendary Recordings of the Century”!