The memory of Fritz Wunderlich's glorious tenor lives on in the heads of all those lucky enough to have heard him in person, but it is 22 years now since he was killed, at the early age of 35, in a household accident, so for many he is no more than a voice on a record. This CD issue will inform those who come fresh to his singing of his sappy tenor and eager, unaffected, articulate way of using it. These attributes are most apparent in the Beethoven cycle for which he had the almost ideal tone. This is the longing, ardent admirer of the distant beloved to the life. Wunderlich phrases this ever-attractive cycle with a secure legato, a keen feeling for the text and a natural buoyancy that produce the right sense of art concealing art. There are one or two moments where note values aren't observed or pitch falters slightly—the performance was a live one, in Vienna; otherwise this is a reading I heartily recommend. The charming Haydn settings of Scottish and Welsh folk-songs are just as admirable, especially Ein susses Liebehen where the serenader, out in the frost and snow of winter, begs to be let into his lover's chamber: Wunderlich sings it with just the right brio.
The Strauss songs, with orchestra, are not quite so inviting. The voice is again the right one, but I find the interpretations on the whole too extroverted, with too little light and shade in the singing. Ich trage meine Minne, for instance, needs the Innigkeit Patzak brings to it on his Acanta LP, where he prefers a mezza voce to Wunderlich's full voice. Morgen!, taken too quickly, loses its timeless poise, but in the more outgoing songs, the remaining three, Wunderlich's straightforward, unfussy style is more appropriate, though even in Standchen I miss a little of the heady enthusiasm of the best interpreters of this much-recorded song. The orchestral playing here is no more than ordinary. The recordings are forward yet spacious, showing little sign of their age in this new transfer.'