Furtwängler Conducts Brahms - Complete Symphonies, etc

Furtwängler Conducts Brahms - Complete Symphonies, etc

Furtwängler Conducts Brahms - Complete Symphonies, etc
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CD Details

Composer: Johannes Brahms
Conductor: Wilhelm Furtwangler
Orchestra: North German Radio Orchestra
Orchestra: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Performer: Edwin Fischer
Edition: Music CD
Format: Box set
CD Release Date: 1999-11-16
Music Label: Music and Arts Program
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. Symphony No. 1 In C, Op. 68: I Un poco sostenuto - Allegro
  2. Symphony No. 1 In C, Op. 68: II Andante sostenuto
  3. Symphony No. 1 In C, Op. 68: III Un poco allegretto y grazioso
  4. Symphony No. 1 In C, Op. 68: IV Adagio piu andante - Allegro non troppo ma con brio
  5. Symphony No. 1 In C, Op. 68: Adagio piu andante - Allegro non troppo ma con brio
Music CD 2
  1. Symphony No. 2 In D, Op. 73: I Allegro non troppo
  2. Symphony No. 2 In D, Op. 73: II Adagio non troppo
  3. Symphony No. 2 In D, Op. 73: III Allegretto grazioso
  4. Symphony No. 2 In D, Op. 73: IV Allegro con spirito
  5. SYMPHONY NO. 3 IN F, OP. 90: I Allegro con brio
  6. SYMPHONY NO. 3 IN F, OP. 90: II Andante
  7. SYMPHONY NO. 3 IN F, OP. 90: III Poco allegretto
  8. SYMPHONY NO. 3 IN F, OP. 90: IV Allegro
Music CD 3
  1. Symphony No. 4 In E, Op. 98: I Allegro non troppo
  2. Symphony No. 4 In E, Op. 98: II Andante moderato
  3. Symphony No. 4 In E, Op. 98: III Allegro giocoso
  4. Symphony No. 4 In E, Op. 98: IV Allegro energico e passionato
  5. Variations On A Theme By Haydn, Op. 56A: Haydn Variations
Music CD 4
  1. Piano Concerto No. 2 In B Flat, Op. 83: I Allegro non troppo
  2. Piano Concerto No. 2 In B Flat, Op. 83: II Allegro appasionato
  3. Piano Concerto No. 2 In B Flat, Op. 83: III Andante
  4. Piano Concerto No. 2 In B Flat, Op. 83: IV Allegretto grazioso
  5. Variations On A Theme By Haydn, Op. 56A: Chorale St. Antoni: Andante
  6. Variations On A Theme By Haydn, Op. 56A: Var. I Poco piu animato
  7. Variations On A Theme By Haydn, Op. 56A: Var. II Piu vivace
  8. Variations On A Theme By Haydn, Op. 56A: Var. III Con moto
  9. Variations On A Theme By Haydn, Op. 56A: Var. IV Andante con moto
  10. Variations On A Theme By Haydn, Op. 56A: Var. V Vivace
  11. Variations On A Theme By Haydn, Op. 56A: Var. VI Vivace
  12. Variations On A Theme By Haydn, Op. 56A: Var. VII Grazioso
  13. Variations On A Theme By Haydn, Op. 56A: Var. VIII Presto non troppo
  14. Variations On A Theme By Haydn, Op. 56A: Finale. Andante

Music reviews of Furtwängler Conducts Brahms - Complete Symphonies, etc

Music Review: Everything everyone around here says is true
Rating: 3 Stars

These are compelling records of Wilhelm Furtwangler's approach to the Brahms' symphonies and the Piano Concerto No. 2 with Edwin Fischer playing the solo piano role. Listening to these recordings will help a new or inexperienced collector understand why Furtwangler was given a god-like following in his time, when it was said he could cast a magical spell over an audience in concert. Those were times when the likes of Adolf Hitler could cast the same magical spell over Germans, as well, making it a time far different than our own, when virtually any message given this individuality would be subject to questioning, ridicule, constant and ongiong evaluation and second guessing. So these recordings represent a time much different than our epoch and must be heard in that perspective.

The few comments about bad sound quality from the detractors are also true. These are not high fidelity recordings; they are mainly radio recordings remastered by Arts & Music, one of the better labels specializing in realizing older recordings and radio broadcasts. Until Andante and Naxos came along and showed everyone how good an older recording could be, this label was probably the best available for older recordings. But no one can make recordings emanating from the 1940s and 1950s sound like new and these don't. But, like other reviewers here said, they are often as good as any available from Furtwangler. A notable exception here is the 1943 Symphony 4, which is musically the equal to the 1948 Japanese EMI recording, but is also sonically inferior to the later recording, carrying a noticeable radio buzz throughout the fourth movement.

For the unitiated wondering, "Why should I spend money on 50- and 65-year-old recordings?", the answer is to hear Furtwangler's unique way with mainstream German repertory. Furtwangler held sway with the Berlin Philharmonic in two different eras -- from 1922-45 and again from 1952 until his death in 1954. He directed the orchestra after such luminaries as Hans von Bulow and Artur Nikish and before the ascent of Herbert von Karajan. Sergiu Celibadache, a cult conductor known for his disdain of studio recordings and glacial interpretaions, filled the time after the war until Furtwangler returned in 1952.

Furtwangler's way was unlike anyone of his time or ours although certain wilful conductors of the recording era -- Leonard Bernstein, Leopold Stokowski and Daniel Barenboim among them -- demonstrated some of his characteristics of rapid increase in tempo and dynamics followed by tenuto or massive slowdown and quiet. None of the named conducotrs did it as frequently as Furtwangler, and none with such universal acclaim. However, like Bernstein and Stokie in their most individual moments, a Furtwangler interpretation is more an adaptation of the score than a reading of it -- adapting the conductor's ideas into the fabric of the music.

Furtwangler was perhaps most renowned for his beat; or perhaps it is better to say he was renowned for not having a beat. There is an old joke, told by one of his players, about his how to pick up his beat when the old man's batonless right hand would quiver as if he were having a heart attack or rigor mortis were trying to set in: stand up, look about you and listen, walk around the chair three times, and sit down.

Yet, as these recordings will tell you, Furtwangler did indeed have a defined beat and members of his orchestras picked it up pretty readily. When he is straightforward -- as he is accompanying Edwin Fischer's playing in the Second Piano Concerto here or in his famous rendering of the Schubert Symphony 9 and Haydn Symphony 88 on DG -- Furtwangler is a compelling voice for German reason and emotion. When his conducting tends to be all over the place, as it is in the first movement exposition of the Symphony 4 in this box, he is, by my reckoning, somewhat less of an authority on the music.

There are plenty of people that continue to believe Furtwangler has special authority in the core Romantic German repertory of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Strauss and Wagner. As Third Ear Classical Music said in its discussion of his Beethoven Symphony 9, "Furtwangler is thought to have a special authority in this music, and he does present a very interesting philosophical argument about how to approach it." This final section of this statement tells you everything you need to know about Furtwangler -- that he often has a philosophical argument in his recordings. It is never enough for him merely to lead the music; he must adapt it to his views as no one has ever done. For, make no mistake, a Furtwangler interpretation is as much as adaptation of the score as a Hollywood movie script is an adaptation of the book from which the idea came.

And this is the razor's edge on which people spill their blood either supporting or rebuking the greatness in this conductor's approach. I was curious about Furtwangler's Brahms and bought this set during a time when I was listening to a lot of this composer including the symphonic sets by Karajan, Hans Schmidt-Issersted (available from Amazon.com.UK) and Ernest Ansermet. While Eugen Jochum's Bruckner represents a direct descendent of Furtwangler's way with that composer, the closest any modern conductor has come to Furtwangler's style is the way Stokowski rather "Stoki"izes the Brahms Symphony No. 3 on his old Everest recording or possibly the way Bernstein interpreted the Schumann symphonies for DG.

In our period-induced era, where the score is sacrosanct and must be adhered to with conviction, it's unlikely another Furtwangler will be forthcoming anytime soon. He represents a time in the past when music and its expression was different than today. That expression and that time is perfectly represented in this set.
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Description of Furtwängler Conducts Brahms - Complete Symphonies, etc

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What a bonanza: some of the most searching interpretations ever made of symphonic cornerstones, from a now bygone era of performance, here beautifully remastered by Music & Arts and packaged into a bargain set. Wilhelm Furtwängler's dynamic, always-evolving--and often unpredictable--visions of a classic score could overwhelm listeners with their paradoxical aura of the inevitable, wresting away the easy, dull comfort of familiarity. This is most dramatically the case with the conductor's performances of Beethoven. They still move and shake us free of lazy assumptions about this music with all the power of artistic truth. Furtwängler came relatively late to Brahms (like so many of the composer's most abiding admirers) but identified deeply with Brahms's dark strain of melancholy and self-consciousness. The Furtwängler trademarks are all here--palpable molding of tempos and dynamics to concentrate drama, oracular moments of insight, and an astonishingly compelling, organic sense of the whole.

Perhaps the most viscerally thrilling account here is of the First Symphony, from 1951, which, as John Ardoin brilliantly describes it in The Furtwängler Record, has the "magnificent rawness of a Michelangelo." But, when you think you've reached an untoppable high at its conclusion, listen to the finale from Furtwängler's final wartime concert in Berlin, 1945 (the only extant movement on disc), included in this set. The symphonies presented here are a far cry from the stuffy, pedantic, anachronistic Brahms served up by so many lesser lights. Furtwängler grasps and conveys the subtly layered ambiguities in these scores, the blending--particularly in the Second's Adagio (1945) and the final measures of the Third (1943)--of deep shadow with serene sunlight. His Brahms Four from 1943 at times verges on the terrifying; ultimately it passes beyond tragedy into new wisdom as Furtwängler scoops, caresses, sculpts, and simply builds musical contours. The set also includes two interpretations of the Haydn Variations (1943 and 1951) and the legendary 1942 Second Piano Concerto featuring Edwin Fischer as soloist--a touchstone of musical partnership. There's a varying level of background hiss and distortion throughout the set, but in general this is an extraordinary CD transfer. And in Furtwängler's presence, any distracting artifacts of the recorded sound soon fade into insignificance. This is a must not only for listeners serious about Brahms but for anyone intrigued by the art of musical interpretation. --Thomas May

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