He was one of the most famous tenors of all time: Luciano Pavarotti. One of his childhood friends was the soprano Mirella Freni, who later …
The music of the James Bond movies
It was actually an accident: English composer Monty Norman was entrusted with composing the score for the first Bond film, Dr. No, in 1962. John …
Mirella Freni: The Magic of a Voice
She was considered Herbert von Karajan’s favorite singer, was a friend of Maria Callas, and grew up with Luciano Pavarotti: Mirella Freni.
Fritz Wunderlich: The Century Tenor (4.)
It was in June 1963 that Fritz Wunderlich caused a small scandal in his hometown Kusel: In a television broadcast, Wunderlich referred to his home town of Kusel as “a little nest in the Palatinate.” The people of Kusel took this as an insult – it took less than 24 hours for Fritz Wunderlich to learn of the uproar…
Fritz Wunderlich: The Century Tenor (3.)
At the end of January 1960, Fritz Wunderlich met Herbert von Karajan for the first time: in a performance of Mozart’s Requiem with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Wunderlich earned the praise of the Berlin press:
Fritz Wunderlich: The Century Tenor (2.)
The Freiburg Academy of Music, where Fritz studied from 1950 on, had only been founded shortly after the end of the war. At first Fritz was not sure whether he could make a living with singing. In the first three semesters, Wunderlich concentrated primarily on studying the horn.
Fritz Wunderlich: The Century Tenor (1.)
On the morning of September 26, 1930, the following sign decorated the door of the saloon Emrich’s Braustübl inn in the Palatine town of Kusel: “Fritzchen has arrived today. Saloon closed!”. Just who was it who had “arrived”? Perhaps more importantly, who were the parents of „Fritzchen“, the new-born baby?
Herbert von Karajan: The Great Meteor
“Leonard Bernstein, Sir Georg Solti, Herbert von Karajan and Seiji Ozawa sit together and discuss who of the four is the greatest conductor. Ozawa argues …
Dmitri Hvorostovsky: A Russian soul
Dmitri Hvorostovsky (1962-2017) lived to sing. The Russian opera baritone always knew what he wanted and always had the firm will to achieve it. In …
Khatia Buniatishvili: Motherland
The Georgian-French pianist Khatia Buniatishvili released her album “Motherland“ in 2015: “Motherland“ brings together interpretations of classical music by a wide variety of composers, all of whom have one thing in common: They set out in search of their “Motherland“.