composed by Johann Rosenmülle performed by Fritz Wunderlich
Once when I was visiting a synagogue the Rabbi said, "there are cemeteries everywhere full of people who thought that they were indispensable and that the world could not continue without them but in the end the world manages to keep on going and so do we". The World was robbed of a talented man when Fritz Wunderlich died at the age of 35 but as the rabbi said we move on with our lives and the world continues to turn, but luckily Wunderlich left us something beautiful to remember him by, his voice.
When did I first hear this voice? In the shower (yup you read correctly). Like a lot of people I like to sing (or hum or even whistle) in the shower but since I'm not any good at it I have music playing to drown out my "lovely" voice. On one particular occasion I felt like listening to classical music so I turned on my radio, "turned the dial" to KUSC (a classical music station broadcast from the University of Southern California), and hopped into the shower. The station happened to be broadcasting a program on tenors, I recognized a handful of the voices including that of Pavarotti and Domingo but suddenly I heard something completely new and absolutely breathtaking. I impatiently waited for the piece to end so I could find out who was singing and when I heard the name Fritz Wunderlich I began to chant it so I wouldn't forget. As soon as I was out of the shower and dry (with the exception of my hair) I rushed to my computer and looked Wunderlich up (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Wunderlich) and I looked for his recordings and I was not disappointed with what I found. Here is a sampling of the musical treasure trove I uncovered:
Here is Part I of a documentary on Wunderlich:
purchased from: eMusic
