Search - Furtwangler, Handel, Schubert :: Previously Unpublished Recordings

Furtwangler Unpublished...but performance is not so good.

Chung-Whun Chung | Seoul, Republic of Korea | 11/28/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"These historical documents were kept Broadcasting Archives in Berlin and Wien. But I think it's an important 'document' only. Handel's Concerto grosso op.6 no.5 and Beethoven's 5th symphony-performed by Berliner Philharmoniker-was recorded live in Berlin(13 September 1939). I was thought 'It's a taped concert' but its recording material is very noisy eight acetate discs. Moreover, 7th disc has been lost. So, Tahra put 1937 HMV studio recording between 6th and 8th disc. And Tahra restored so 'pure sound' in original discs. Its scratch noise is so loud. Schubert's Entr'acte no.3 from Rosamunde and Mozart's 40th symphony-performed by Wiener Philharmoniker-was recorded live(without audience) in Wien(2-3 June 1944). It's a magnetic tape recording but I don't like these performances. Furtwangler's approach in this symphony so fast and so drastic. I like better EMI's studio recording(Wiener Philharmoniker, 1948-49) and live recording in Wiesbaden(Berliner Philharmoniker, 1949). But other recordings are good. In unpublished two interview in German(But interviewer Henry Jaton speaks French and Furtwangler's speech translate French, too. In booklet, Tahra wrote two languages-French and English.), we'll know Furtwangler's thinking of conducting. And very rare repertoire conducted by Furtwangler, Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales' two rehersal recordings(with Berliner Philharmoniker in April 1953) are contained, too. It's a most important document in this CD. Furtwangler's music-making is preserved very good here. And, second rehersal is performed completely this work without pause. But, Tahra put together two rehersals irresponsibly. Maybe you listen only second rehersal, it's a very tiresome for you(First rehersal is nearly 18 minutes)."

Desert Island Schubert...and more

G. Weis | 08/15/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After reading Mr. Chung's review, I simply wanted to provide a different perspective on these recordings. First, as to the sound: I thought that, for their era, the 1944 radio broadcasts of the VPO in the Schubert and Mozart were excellent. I have heard many live recordings from the 1950's that are not as good. There is some light hiss, but the orchestra is in full bloom and clear, without any wavering of pitch. The 1939 BPO recordings of the Handel and Beethoven are, not surprisingly, thinner and dimmer. There is a large-hall acoustic that clouds some detail, and a fairly distant sonic perspective. And yet, even in these recordings I found that my ear adjusted quickly. The BPO string sheen (famous in the late 1930's) is well caught, and I am thankful Tahra did not employ excessive noise reduction. Now, on to the music. I have never heard a more seductive, more graceful, more heartfelt Entracte No. 3 from Schubert's Rosamunde. This would not be a bad choice to be the last thing a person heard while departing this world. The word 'sublime' gets rather tossed around, but it actually applies here. This performance alone justifies the cd. The Mozart symphony is in my view superior to the 1949 Wiesbaden performance with the BPO (available on Tahra 1021 and also on an old Virtuoso cd in somewhat fiercer, but more present, sound) mentioned by Mr. Chung. The opening allegro here has real poignancy, and the andante has a delightful lilt and charming accents. There is often an aching, plaintive quality that does not appear in the Wiesbaden recording. Throughout, the playing of the VPO, especially the winds, is virtuosic, and ensemble is excellent. One does not hear any of those vague entries for which Furtwangler is (unfairly, in my opinion) parodied. John Ardoin says in his book, The Furtwangler Record, that VPO recordings of this symphony are more "manicured" and "restrained," while the BPO recordings are more "full-bodied." He did not, however, have access to this recording when he wrote the book, and it would be interesting to hear his opinion of it. It is certainly more beautiful than the Wiesbaden performance, and completely lacks, to my ear, all that the word 'manicured' connotes. The Beethoven 5th from 1939 is the most conventional of the several WF recordings of this symphony I've heard, less heavy and less rhetorical, with fewer of the accelerandos and ritards that later entered his performances. It's not manic (like the wartime 5th), or even gripping, but I thought it a very effective performance. It's the VPO recordings, however, that make this twofer one you might want to try to audition. The Schubert and Mozart are both extraordinary, and confirm Furtwangler's special genius."

From the review in Gramophone

Record Collector | Mons, Belgium | 12/01/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

""The real revelation here is a rehearsal-performance of Ravel's 'Valses nobles et sentimentales' with the Berlin Philharmonic and dating from April 1953. Roughly half of this 35-minute track has Furtwangler linger over salient details from specific sections of the score, whereas the last 16 minutes or so (from 18'54'') are devoted to an uninterrupted play-through--pitted only occasionally by untidy ensemble or the odd comment from the rostrum. Tempos are, as one might expect, very broad; but the string playing in particular has a vibrant, sensual quality that is frequently more suggestive of Bernstein than of Furtwangler. The most remarkable aspect of the performance, however, mirrors Furtwangler's mastery of musical transitions, the way he edges from one valse to the next--at 28'29'' and beyond, say, where his sense of timing and acute feeling for colour anticipate the mature Celibidache. This is a significant discographical document, one that presents a great conductor's art in a totally new light.



"In the case of Mozart's Symphony No. 40, the obvious point of comparison is Furtwangler's 1948-9 studio version for EMI. My initial reaction on hearing this 1944 Vienna recording was to doubt its authenticity, though closer comparisons reveal too many similarities to sustain doubts for very long. Differences between the two--and quite a few parade themselves--are most marked in the first movement. The more relaxed wartime account sports prominent string porta mentos (there are virtually none in the later version) and dispenses with the first movement's exposition repeat. Generally speaking, the Tahra performance is the more affectionate and EMI's the more urgent and intense.



"The live Beethoven performance is fairly similar to the famous EMI 1937 set. In fact, a missing chunk of the original broadcast (the `seventh side', apparently, i.e., bars 486-668) is replaced by EMI's studio recording of the same passage, thus underlining the interpretative consistency between the two performances. The live version has more prominent timpani, marginally stronger inflexions and a shot more adrenalin, but is otherwise quite similar to its commercially recorded predecessor.



"As to the Handel Concerto grosso, purists be warned: Furtwangler's `edition' transposes string lines, changes bowed passages to pizzicato (both emendations occur in the second movement), fleshes out textures (as in the Ouverture) and reverses the order of the last two movements (a post-war Berlin broadcast performance once issued on LP by DG took similar liberties). And yet it is a profoundly inspired re-creation, with emotive extremes in tempo (very fast second movement, lovingly indulged Largo) and a typically Furtwanglerian employment of silence between the end of the Largo and the beginning of the Menuet. The performance ends with a rumbustious reading of the jolly Allegro that should rightly have preceded the Minuet.



"A gentle exposition of Rosamunde's Third Entr'acte (similar in outline to Furtwangler's studio recordings) completes a set that is further enhanced by two interviews, both of them between Furtwangler and the Swiss critic Henry Jaton and both conducted in French (Tahra provide an English translation). Listeners therefore have verbal confirmation of the profound interpretative axis that this greatest of German conductors consistently exhibits throughout what is surely a major historical release--one that Furtwangler's many admirers should not, indeed must not, allow to pass into obscurity."

"