Schubert: Die Schöne Müllerin / 3 Lieder
Despite his premature death at age 35, Fritz Wunderlich was one of the great lyric tenors of the  century, equally at home with Mozart'sMagic Fluteand Mahler'sDas Lied von der Erde.  Why, then, does Schubert's great song cycle about disappointed love so often elude him? Though he brings  his usual vocal splendor and gratifying lyricism to the music in ways that few tenors can dream of, both  Wunderlich and his accompanist have a strangely club-footed sense of rhythm. What should often be an  intimate expression is extroverted and even labored.--David Patrick Stearns