Furtwängler Returns with Schumann and Beethoven

The great conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler has more fans among Big 10 readers than I would have suspected. So to follow up on my recent post of him leading Beethoven, here he is with more from that composer, along with two works by Robert Schumann.

The recordings are with the Berlin Philharmonic (unless otherwise stated) and date from 1947-53.

Before we get to the music, why does Furtwängler hold our attention even today? Here is critic Andrew Porter following the conductor's death:

"[H]e played Beethoven's symphonies, and Brahms's and all music for that matter, as if he were playing them for the first time, the only time. A lifetime’s study and the full concentration of the man was going into this one, particular performance.

"More than any other conductor he loved Klangschönheit [sonority], and delighted in sheer beauty of tone; and he ensured with loving rehearsal an intimate balance of orchestral detail. Perhaps there was a lack of driving rhythmic impulse in long movements: but it arose less from preoccupation with passing beauties than as a result of large-scale mountings of tension."

Porter's testimonial, which appeared in The Gramophone, is included in the download.

Schumann - Manfred Overture

If this cover looks familiar, it's because I included one of the works therein on my first survey of Furtwängler's art - Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 2. I had a request for the other item - Schumann's Manfred Overture, so here it is. A different recording of Leonore No. 2 is also in this set. 

The Manfred overture is heard much more often than the other pieces of incidental music that the composer wrote that were inspired by Lord Byron's 1817 poem. It's a splendid piece - don't be put off by the ragged opening here; the performance proves worthy of the work. The recording is from 1951.

Schumann - Symphony No. 4

Schumann's final symphony, written in 1841, was revised for publication a decade later, five years before his death. The work exists in two versions - the original and the later version. Brahms himself had the original published, much to Clara Schumann's displeasure. I believe this recording uses the later version.

I love Schumann's symphonies; this is a grand performance of No. 4. The 1953 sound is particularly good.

Beethoven - Egmont Overture; Leonore Overture No. 2

Similar to Manfred, Beethoven's Egmont Overture is the first item in a set of incidental music, in this case written for a 1787 play by Goethe. The composer premiered the work in 1810. It extols the 16th-century nobleman Lamoral, Count of Egmont from the Low Countries, who was condemned to death for resisting oppression.

The stirring composition is one of Beethoven's greatest and most popular. Furtwängler's performance with the Berlin Philharmonic dates from 1947.

The curious case of Beethoven's four overtures for his opera Fidelio (earlier titled Leonore) was explained in my first post devoted to this conductor. This is a different recording from the one discussed there. That was a 1954 recording; this one comes from 1949. It's not clear why the conductor remade the piece so quickly, although the reason might simply be that they were done for two different companies (Electrola vs. Deutsche Grammophon).

It remains to be said that Furtwängler's live performances are generally considered to be superior to his studio efforts. I don't find that to be the case, but it is a common opinion.

Furtwängler had an unusual conducting style (which probably had something to do with the imprecise opening of Manfred noted above). You can see it in a 1950 film of him leading Strauss' Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche - not my favorite music, but indicative of the eminent conductor in front of an orchestra.

Hope you enjoy this latest taste of the conductor's artistry - not to mention that of Schumann and Beethoven.

LINK

A Beethoven Program with Furtwängler and Menuhin

Here is a program devoted to Beethoven featuring recordings by one of the most famous 20th century conductors - Wilhelm Furtwängler. The soloist is violinist Yehudi Menuhin.

These recordings were made late in the conductor's career - from 1952 to 1954. Furtwängler died in late 1954 at age 68.

The program begins with Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 2, followed by the Violin Concerto and the Symphony No. 3.

Furtwängler was often contrasted with the other preeminent conductor of his time - Arturo Toscanini. Here is the critic Neville Cardus in a tribute published following Furtwängler's death: "[He] conducted in a manner exactly opposed to the Toscanini objectivity: in plainer words, he did not regard the printed notes of the score as a final statement, but rather as so many symbols of an imaginative conception, ever changing and always to be felt and realized subjectively. His variations and tempo often irritated musicians who, in increasing numbers during a period of anti-romanticism, persuaded themselves to believe in music as an arrangement of patterns conveying no emotion or meaning reducible to terms or language related to merely human or egoistical significance."

Furtwängler paradoxically conducted in a manner than appeared improvisational, while also seeming to penetrate to the work's essence - at least to his admirers, of whom there are still many. He was a remarkable figure.

Leonore Overture No. 2, Op. 72a

Beethoven wrote no fewer than four overtures for his only opera, which eventually was called Fidelio. The original title was Leonore, after one of the leading characters, and three of the overtures carry her name. Furtwängler programmed the Leonore Overture No. 2, Op. 72a, which, to add to the confusion, was actually the first Beethoven composed. It is quite long (this performance lasts almost 16 minutes); the others were more succinct.

Here is Timothy Judd's precis of the opera: "The plot centers on a heroic struggle for liberty: Leonore, disguised as a male prison guard named Fidelio, rescues her husband Florestan from political imprisonment and death by gradual starvation."

Judd then discusses Op. 72a: "The Overture opens with a titanic unison G which gives way to a searching, descending, modal scale - a musical descent into the darkness of Florestan’s prison cell ... A few moments later, the theme from Florestan’s soliloquy offers a glimmer of light amid mystery and lonely solitude. This music is filled with a sense of heroic struggle, an intense longing for freedom, and Florestan’s thoughts of Leonore ... Just as Leonore Overture No. 2 reaches a climax of ferocity,  a sudden, distant trumpet call is heard, signaling Florestan’s impending freedom. At first, there is numb shock and disbelief. Then, the Overture’s final bars erupt into a joyful, unabashed celebration of freedom."

The recording, with the Berlin Philharmonic, is from 1954.

Violin Concerto in D, Op. 61

Yehudi Menuhin recorded several concertos with Furtwängler, with whom he had a great affinity. On a broadcast following the conductor's death, he stated, "Furtwängler was perhaps the last exponent of a tradition carrying us as far back as the Indians and the Greeks, a tradition of music as a hallowed link with divinity, with the Gods. As we all too tritely say, nothing is sacred today, but I believe something should be and some music should be. Furtwängler accomplished a sacred rite each time he conducted a Beethoven or a Brahms or a Bach work."

Wilhelm Furtwängler and Yehudi Menuhin

Their recording of the Violin Concerto is a classic. The Gramophone's verdict: "This [is] an exhibition of superb fiddling, but there is in the performance also a poise, a spaciousness and depth of musical feeling for which it would be less than just not to suggest that Furtwängler was equally responsible ... Menuhin gives a magnificent reading of the work (not without deviations from the printed notes in a couple of places) which will stand the test of the most searching analysis and more than satisfy those whom the perfect recording has long eluded."

Furtwängler and Menuhin recorded the work in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra in 1953.

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 (Eroica)

Beethoven first wanted to name his third symphony "Bonaparte" in honor of Napoleon. But after Napoleon declared himself emperor - to the composer's dismay - Beethoven changed the title to "Eroica," or the "Heroic Symphony, Composed to celebrate the memory of a great man."

The cover of this original Electrola LP may lead you to think that the "hero" was the conductor, but in actuality this is a famous performance that is true to Beethoven's intentions. The critic Michael Marcus wrote: "The performance is a great one. Here Furtwängler shows incomparably how to extract the utmost meaning from any phrase while never losing sight of the over-all design. The lead into the coda of the first movement is a masterpiece of sustained and controlled tension, and in the coda itself the giant stride of the composer's imagination is unforgettably unleashed. The Finale, too, is welded together with supreme force and vigour, and the Vienna Philharmonic horns are superb."

Furtwängler attempted to penetrate to the core of the work; and in that aim he was not different from that of Roger Norrington in the recording of the Ninth Symphony recently heard here. Their methods, however, were opposed, with the younger maestro seeking insight from Beethoven's markings and the evidence as to the instruments and sound of the orchestra in the early 19th century, while Furtwängler, as Menuhin put it, was an exponent of "a tradition of music as a hallowed link with divinity." In contrast, Norrington remarked that conducting is "not about consecrating a sacred object. It’s about exploring and being curious and having fun."

The Furtwängler Eroica recording was made in late 1952 in Vienna.

The sound on all these discs is quite good.

LINK

Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs with Flagstad and Söderström

Wilhelm Furtwängler and Kirsten Flagstad

This post was occasioned by nothing so much as my wanting to listen to Richard Strauss's set of Four Last Songs. In the event, I ended up transferring two performances: the premiere of 1950 with Kirsten Flagstad, Wilhelm Furtwängler and the Philharmonia Orchestra, and a 1982 recording from Elisabeth Söderström and the Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera, with Richard Armstrong conducting.

Strauss composed the group of songs in 1948, when he was 84, asking that Flagstad premiere them. He was to die the following year. This recording is a transcription of the first performance from the Royal Albert Hall in May 1950. It originates from a somewhat noisy set of acetates that cannot obscure the remarkable performance from Flagstad, the greatest Wagnerian soprano of her time; Furtwängler, whom many consider to be the finest conductor of the 20th century; and the Philharmonia, one of the premiere ensembles of the postwar era. Flagstad's voice is astonishing in its effortless power.

For contrast, I chose the superb singing actor Elisabeth Söderström in an all-Strauss program that as far as I know has not been reissued. Her version of the Four Last Songs is complemented by scenes from two Strauss operas - the Marschallin's monologue from Der Rosenkavalier and the closing scene from Capriccio. While Sir Richard Armstrong and his Welsh forces are hardly as celebrated as Furtwängler and the Philharmonia, they acquit themselves very well here, and Söderström is affecting throughout the program.

I cleaned up as much of the noise on the Flagstad performance as I could, while addressing the balance and pitch problems found on the Turnabout LP I used for the transfer. The final measures of "Im Abendrot" are missing, unfortunately. The sound from the Söderström LP is good.

Söderström follows the published sequence of the songs - "Frühling," "September," "Beim Schlafengehen" and "Im Abendrot." Flagstad and Furtwängler had performed "Beim Schlafengehen" first and "Frühling" third. The sequencing is somewhat arbitrary - Strauss's publisher Ernst Roth had determined the order and dubbed them the Four Last Songs. Roth's sequence did not follow the order of composition, nor was the set Strauss's final work. He composed the song "Malven" later in 1948.

The download includes complete scans of the Söderström LP's gatefold cover, which includes texts and translations.