Anytime I do an episode on Fritz Wunderlich, the sun breaks through the clouds, emotionally speaking. Possessor of a bright-timbred voice of such exquisite beauty anchored by a profoundly satisfying musical sensibility, he and his legacy inspire rather than sadden me. Today I’ve chosen a duet program, because it allows me to showcase Fritz’s effortless stylistic flexibility, while at the same time highlighting a rainbow of singing partners, some of whom are old favorites, and others of whom might not yet be well-known to my listeners. Today’s treasure-trove of singers includes sopranos Maria Stader, Lucia Popp, Teresa Stratas, Erika Köth, Edith Mathis, Stefania Woytowicz, Pilar Lorengar, Melitta Muszely, Trude Eipperle, Hilde Güden, Anneliese Rothenberger, and Ruth-Margret Pütz; mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig; and baritones Hermann Prey and Marcel Cordes, among others. Wunderlich and his co-stars sing repertoire ranging from the early Baroque through Janáček, including a particularly generous helping of Italian opera (albeit sung mostly in German), German Singspiel and Viennese operetta. It’s a long episode, so don’t hesitate to divide the episode up into bite-sized segments. No matter how you slice it up, I forecast a blissful response to these clarion tones!

Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

This episode celebrates the artistic accomplishments of two of the finest twentieth century singers to come from the environs of Dresden, Peter Schreier and Olaf Bär. Both were former child choristers in the Dresdner Kreuzchor (albeit from two different generations). Both went on as adults to rise to the top of the musical firmament, particularly in their performance of German art song.  Each of these two singers were celebrated in the music of Bach, and in their performance of what their fellow Germans call Kunstlieder and both made memorable and substantial recordings of Christmas art songs, Schreier’s in 1979, accompanied by the late Norman Shetler, and Bär’s in 1996, with the superb Helmut Deutsch. The focus in this episode is on their performance on these respective recordings of the Christmas songs of Max Reger, Engelbert Humperdinck, and Hugo Wolf. We also hear a recording of Schreier during his days as a boy alto in the Dresdner Kreuzchor) singing a selection from the Weihnachtslieder of Peter Cornelius.

Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

Okay, I confess that the title of this week’s episode is intentionally misleading, but if I told you what it actually was outright, you might not listen, and that would be a great loss! On Monday I celebrated Larry Kert for World AIDS Day, and today, I have made a selection of musical settings of the Marian Antiphon Salve Regina, which translated means, “Hail, Queen,” so there you have the inspiration for the episode. In fact, this is an episode chock-full of particularly glorious singing, and I don’t think you’ll regret spending the time with these glorious Queens of Song (with a few Kings tossed in)! The 11th-century Salve Regina text, far from being dry and dull, provided inspiration for a wide range of composers, primarily of the Baroque (Handel, Vivaldi, Hasse, the Scarlattis, Monteverdi, and a number of others), but also of later vintage (Mozart, Johann Christian Bach, Schubert, and even Puccini). The singers who perform these works are a Who’s Who of Countermelody favorites (Helen Donath, Rachel Yakar, Margaret Marshall, Francisco Araiza, Elly Ameling, and Roberta Alexander) and new friends, including three countertenors (Gérard Lesne, John Angelo Messana, and Jochen Kowalski) who provided inspiration to me as a young singer. Dive right in to this episode, my friends, and never fear: would I steer you wrong? Never! The episode begins with a tribute to Madeline Kahn, who died 26 years ago this week.

Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

Today is World AIDS Day, if anyone needed to be reminded. Though I considered doing a compendium episode of broad scope commemorating a handful of the thousands upon thousands of musicians that succumbed to AIDS, I decided instead to focus on one, Broadway icon Larry Kert, who created the role of Tony in West Side Story and was subsequently an early Robert in Sondheim’s Company, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. On December 5, we observe his 95th birthday. In between these career highs, he was involved in a number of notorious Broadway flops (Breakfast at Tiffany’s, La Strada, and Rags) from each of which we hear rare recordings. And yet during his life, superstardom eluded him. It’s quite likely that some of this had to do with him having lived his life openly and unapologetically as a gay man in a time when most comparable figures were deeply in the closet. But Larry was also a familiar figure on television of that era, appearing as a guest star on popular series, on game shows, on commercials, and as a particular favorite of Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, in which he made 29 guest appearances. He also was often seen as a replacement in and on tours of popular musicals such as Cabaret, Two Gentlemen of Verona, I Can Get It for You Wholesale, and, finally, La Cage aux Folles, to name just a few. In that last show, his frail health meant that he had to miss significant numbers of performances, though he continued to make important appearances on stage and on recordings until just shortly before his death on June 5, 1991 at the age of 60. On the episode, we hear him with such legendary co-stars as Teresa Stratas, Liza Minnelli, Chita Rivera, Madeline Kahn, Maureen McGovern, Mimi Hines, and Harvey Evans, as well as his WSS co-star Carol Lawrence. We also trace the support and influence he received over the course of his career from his trusted friend Martin Charnin, who played a sometimes surprising role in Kert’s career. Though Larry Kert felt that he never received the recognition he deserved, this episode demonstrates how he stood at the forefront of all Broadway tenors of his generation, as well as past and future ones.

Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

As I sat yesterday pondering all my friends, family, and compatriots celebrating Thanksgiving, my thoughts turned to the turkey, the traditional sacrificial creature for this event. And whatever the avian counterpart of a rabbit hole is, that’s where my thoughts turned as I realized that a tribute to our feathered friends in general would make a nice, lightweight, potpourri episode as we once again hurtle into the final preparations for the holiday season. As my list of possible repertoire exploded, I decided to limit myself only to stage works in which a bird is somehow involved: as a character, as a symbol, as a metaphor, perhaps even as all three simultaneously. So, with composers ranging from Rameau to Sondheim, including such forgotten figures as Walter Braunfels, Victor Massé, and Félicien David, I have put together a wonderful program that focuses particularly but not exclusively on the florid French repertoire, performed by such favorites as Reri Grist, James King, Ileana Cotrubas, Fritz Wunderlich, Sylvia Sass, and Mattiwilda Dobbs, bolstered by such relative newcomers to Countermelody as Léïla Ben Sédira, Ninon Vallin, Janine Micheau, Harolyn Blackwell, Emma Calvé, Endrik Wottrich, Liz Callaway, and Flore Wend. In addition, I am particularly thrilled to present a sublime singer whom I’d not yet encountered before yesterday: the British-Swedish songbird Jacqueline Delman, singing Granados!

Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

Every hundred or so episodes, I feel compelled to pay a return visit to beloved Hungarian diva Sylvia Sass, for there’s always something new and delicious to discover! I’ve cleaned up another former bonus episode and expanded it with a half-dozen extra tracks, from Verdi to Mozart, from her definitive Bluebeard’s Castle to arie antiche topped with a bracing blast of verismo. Then I link up with the previously published bonus episode which samples live excerpts from the two legendary 1976 Verdi performances (Giselda and Violetta) that put Sass on the fast track to operatic superstardom, then pivot to selections from stage works by Offenbach, Respighi, and Gounod that generously flout all of Sylvia’s musical and vocal virtues. Especially treasurable are a number of performances of art song by Liszt, Schumann, Schubert, Strauss, Wagner, and Kodály that explore more deeply her career-long commitment to art song. Plus that, three pop selections recorded between 1983 and 2004, simply irresistible to me and (I hope) to you as well! Sass lovers, you’re in for a feast!

Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

This past September 19th, we observed the anniversary of the death in 1992 of the great Welsh bass-baritone Geraint Evans at the age of 70. A vivid actor and a skilled singer, he both began and ended his career at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, but was a treasured guest at opera houses all over the globe. In 1966, London/Decca records released a recording designed to give full display to his musical, stylistic, and dramatic versatility. In its US issue it was entitled, appropriately enough, Three Centuries of Baritone Art, and in it many of his greatest roles are highlighted, as well as a number of parts, unusual or uncharacteristic for him, which he never performed onstage.  Needless to say, his Mozart roles are in the forefront, as is his exceptional characterization of Verdi’s Falstaff, to which he brought a light buffo touch while still retaining a full vocal palette bolstered by a vivid characterization. On this episode, I supplement this album with a delightful recording of Evans singing from Mahler’s Knaben Wunderhorn, a wrenching one of his legendary Wozzeck, and a monumental one of Elegy for a Prince, a work for voice and orchestra by William Mathias, written for and dedicated to Evans, who sang the premiere in 1972 and subsequently recorded it in 1977.

Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

Today some real meat and potatoes Italian opera. Oh, wait, perhaps we should call it spaghetti alla bolognese rather than meat and potatoes. So often on the podcast I bring singers to the fore that are not as well known as some of the biggest stars in opera. But today I bring you both Luciano Pavarotti and Mirella Freni, two of the most popular and celebrated Italian opera stars in the history of opera, especially opera in the late twentieth century. As many already know, the two singers both grew up in Modena, where their working-class mothers worked in the same cigar factory; as budding opera singers, they subsequently studied voice with the same teacher in Mantova. They remained lifelong friends and often sang together, especially in La Bohème. In 1980, the two returned to their native Modena where they performed together at the Teatro Comunale di Modena, known since 2021 as the Teatro Comunale Pavarotti-Freni. The concert was conducted by Freni’s ex-husband Leone Magiera, also a native of Modena. In this concert, they performed duets from their shared repertoire: Elisir d’amore, Traviata, and L’amico Fritz. They also performed solo arias from La figlia del reggimento and Vespri siciliani (Freni) and Werther and L’africana (Pavarotti). The material is supplemented on today’s episode with arias from both singers in contemporaneous live performances at the Arena di Verona. And this entire songfest is topped with the cherry of a live 1965 concert on French television of “O soave fanciulla” in which their joined voices are heard in the first flush of youth.

Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

 

An old LP of Tōru Takemitsu’s Coral Island and a conversation with a new friend about American Exceptionalism inspired today’s episode, the “International Edition” of my ongoing series on Orchestral Song. Coral Island is still here, although I ended up using a later (and better) recording than the one in my collection. I also feature the work of composers Karol Szymanowski, Augustyn Bloch, Aminollah Hossein, Kaija Saariaho, Frederic Mompou, Ottorino Respighi, Fartein Valen, Bohuslav Martinů, and many others, performed by Gerald Finley, Andréa Guiot, Robert Tear, Dorothy Dorow, Halina Łukomska, Victoria de los Ángeles, Andrzej Hiolski, Bernard Kruysen, and Marianne Crebassa, for starters! I have been enjoying so much preparing these recent “potpourri” episodes, and this one is particularly chock full of surprises and discoveries!

Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

If we have to live in a world of extremes, I want it to be a world in which Magda Olivero reigns supreme. Her artistry combined both integrity (personal, vocal, and artistic), alongside originality and fearless risk-taking. She was never afraid to go out on a limb and it was this quality (alongside her extraordinary longevity) that endeared her to so many opera lovers. Today I have culled my Olivero collection and combined excerpts from a number of rare albums in my collection with material culled from The Magda Olivero Archives, maintained by Denis Robert, a friend and confidante of Olivero who has made it his life’s work to present the great diva in all her many facets. We hear the great diva in excerpts from Manon Lescaut, Mefistofele, Traviata, Tristan (!), Bohème, Manon, Medea, and Adriana Lecouvreur (probably her most significant role). In addition, I offer up live excerpts from her two Carnegie Hall recitals as well as rare recordings of Italian songs, including an excerpt from her official farewell appearance in 1991 at the age of 81. There was never another soprano even remotely like her, and if she is your cup of tea (as she most emphatically is mine), this episode will provide an exceptional opportunity to revel in many aspects of her artistry.

Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

Today’s potpourri episode is a special one for anyone who has ever studied voice in a college, university or conservatory. One of the primary sources of repertoire for instructors of singing has been a book first published by G. Schirmer in 1894 entitled Twenty-Four Italian Songs and Arias, consisting primarily of arie antiche, i.e. songs from the Italian baroque (Caldara, Monteverdi, Scarlatti, Durante, and others), heavily edited, and often virtually rewritten, by musicologist Theodore Baker. Many of the works were also falsely attributed to composers (Pergolesi, Stradella, and Marcello in particular) who had nothing to do with the pieces in question. In spite of those editorial issues, these songs have figured prominently ever since in the early repertoire of most young singers. They have also been a staple of the concert platform for as long (and, truth be told, even longer), and remain so to this day. Today’s episode focuses on this repertoire as recorded by some of the greatest singers of the twentieth century. Some of these artists are Countermelody favorites (Claudia Muzio, Elly Ameling, Igor Gorin, Roberta Alexander, Irina Arkhipova, Gérard Souzay) but many others have, in spite of their stature, received relatively little exposure on the podcast (Luciano Pavarotti, Suzanne Danco, Roland Hayes, Georges Thill, Montserrat Caballé, John McCormack, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Nigel Rogers, and Beniamino Gigli, among many others presented in the episode). And let us not forget to raise a glass to Joan Sutherland, whose 99th birthday is observed today, and whose voice is the last one heard on the episode, in a rare 1960 radio recording, stunningly vocalized, that might surprise you.

Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.



 

The great French soprano Rachel Yakar died on 24 June 2023 at the age of 87. As she frequently performed opposite our last subject, Swiss tenor Eric Tappy, this episode makes a suitable pendant to that one. Celebrated for her transcendent performances of Baroque music, (Monteverdi and the French Baroque in particular), Yakar was (like previous podcast subjects Eugene Holmes, Oralia Domínguez, Hana Janků, Gwendolyn Killebrew, and Teresa Żylis-Gara) also a member of ensemble of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf and Duisburg, with which company she performed for more than 25 years, singing a dizzying range of repertoire, everything from Mélisande to Arabella, Liù to Rusalka, Euridice to Desdemona. She also performed Donna Elvira and the Marschallin at Glyndebourne; and was an unforgettable Poppea in the Ponnelle-Harnoncourt Monteverdi cycle filmed for Unitel. In her prime she was also a frequent visitor to the recording studio, singing everything from Rameau to Varèse, Mozart to Messiaen, with conductors from Harnoncourt to Boulez, Leonhardt to Nagano. She was also a devoted song recitalist and in the later years of her career, she made two recordings of melodies for Virgin Records with the admirable support of her long-term accompanist Claude Lavoix. For the majority of this episode, I have chosen excerpts from both of those recordings, featuring the songs of Fauré and Hahn, which include settings of poets central to their output, including Paul Verlaine, Armand Silvestre, Léconte de Lisle, and Théodore de Banville, supplementing it with additional material in French by Ravel, Lekeu, Clérambault, Messiaen, and Poulenc. Yakar, who, like Régine Crespin and Nadine Denize, studied under the French dramatic soprano Germaine Lubin, was renowned for her faultless technique, her acting prowess, her peerless French diction, and her communicative artistic sensibility, traits of which are all in evidence in all of her recordings from the 1960s through the end of her career in the mid-1990s. Yakar was especially treasured by her colleagues, friends, and students for the warmth and effervescence of her personality, and her devotion to passing on her knowledge and experience to a younger generation of singers. May you delight in the delicacy, humor, precision, and pathos of one of the most prodigiously gifted and versatile vocal artists of her generation.

Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.

Swiss tenor Eric Tappy (19 May 1931 – 11 June 2024) excelled in so many different musical styles, eras, and genres, that when one considers his artistic achievement systematically, as a whole, one is positively stunned at all that he achieved, and that within a relatively short international career that extended barely 20 years. In addition, at the beginning of his career, his voice was that of a light lyric tenor, but gradually he came to sing heavier roles such as Idomeneo and Tito. The episode considers his biography and the trajectory of that career, touching upon his opera and concert work which ranged from early Baroque through contemporary. For the first ten years of his adult life, he worked as a teacher, gradually gaining enough exposure that he was able to fully devote himself to his singing career after he won several international singing competitions. Tappy is heard in the episode in concert work of Bach, Berlioz, Haydn, and contemporary Dutch composer Rudolf Escher; art songs by both Franz Schubert and Lili Boulanger; and operas by Monteverdi, Gounod, Mozart, and Debussy (his Pelléas was as legendary as his Monteverdi and Mozart impersonations). In addition, Tappy is heard in live and radio recordings of work by his fellow Swiss compatriots Arthur Honegger, Frank Martin, Constantin Régamey, and Hermann Suter. Guest singers include Countermelody favorites Ileana Cotrubaș, Rachel Yakar, Hugues Cuénod, Edda Moser, and Gino Quilico; musical collaborators include Ernest Ansermet, Michel Corboz, Nino Sanzogno, John Pritchard, Armin Jordan, Hans Münch (brother of Charles), Colin Davis, Hans Vonk, and Jean Françaix, among others. Prepare to be surprised and delighted by this great singer, who ended his active singing career at the age of only 50 but who continued as a formative and beloved teacher well into his old age.

Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.