Pfitzner - Palestrina - Wunderlich, Ludwig, Wiener, Frick, Jurinac - Heger, Vienna 19643CDs - ADD - German - 3*78'
Myto 1997
With bonus: Max Lorenz, Paul Schöffler and Rudolf Kempe - Palestrina, Salzburg 1955
Performer: Christa Ludwig, Ludwig Welter, Fritz Wunderlich, Lucia Popp, Gerhard Stolze, Gottlob Frick, Walter Berry, Walter Kreppel, Harald Pröglhöf, Peter Klein, Robert Kerns, Gerhard Unger, Alois Pernerstorfer, Erich Majkut, Sena Jurinac, Hans Braun, Kurt Equiluz, Fritz Sperlbauer, Ljubomir Pantscheff, Dagmar Hermann, Otto Wiener, Hilde Rössl-Majdan, Hans Christian, Siegfried Rudolf Frese, Herbert Lackner, Karl Terkal, Tugomir Franc, Frederick Guthrie, Mimi Coertse, Gundula Janowitz, Paul Schöffler, Max Lorenz
Conductor: Robert Heger, Rudolf Kempe
Orchestra/Ensemble: Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
"This performance is legendary, and, indeed, has certainly never been equaled since. Here we have the young Fritz Wunderlich in the title role, his voice perfectly secure and rock-solid...even through the fiendishly-impossible held high C at the end of Act 1...sure to amaze you with his awesome musicianship and sure-footedness that still today, 44 years later, remains unrivalled! The rest of the cast, also, is in outstanding form. It is a recording to treasure, another of those seemingly very rare coincidences when everything and everyone somehow comes together in total alignment and balance...a testament to how great the art of opera can be, and certainly also to Pfitzner's most beloved work, indeed his masterpiece. How fitting for this Central Work in the twentieth-century German repertoire!" --Amazon customer
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