News

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25 October 2022

We are carrying on with the redesign of past studies. The study on Furtwängler’s years in Lübeck, published as a paper brochure and scanned as such, is now presented in the new graphic charter.

However, due to its length, it was not possible to translate it into English.

There it is.

15 October 2022

Everyone who makes frequent use of the list of Furtwängler’s concerts featured on this site knows that almost all of the concerts are listed. There are however still a number that do not give details of the programmes, principally the concerts given by the BPO during tours at the end of the 1930s and the very early 1940s. As new information is found, we are keen to complete our documentation.

And that is the case with this BPO concert in Dresden, given at the beginning of 1941 in the ‘Gewerbehaus’, the home of the city’s Philharmonic Orchestra. Our list agrees with Peter Muck’s voluminous tome on the Berliners, showing the date as 5 February, yet the official programme — reproduced below — gives it as 5 January. Which prompts us to ask whether we are all wrong.

Not at all! If Erich Knoblauch, the concert agent, had consulted his calendar, he would have noticed that ‘5 Januar’ was not a ‘Mittwoch’ (Wednesday) as he writes, but a ‘Sonntag’ (Sunday), whereas 5 February was indeed a Wednesday. And, when under Hermann Zilcher’s Concerto he added the word ‘Uraufführung’, he was well aware that the official world premiere would take place in Berlin, during the series of subscription concerts on 2, 3 and 4 February. The day after the last of these concerts, on their visit to Dresden, the Berliners only needed to repeat the same programme (with the exception of the Overture to The Bartered Bride by Smetana).

Finally, for those who might be interested, this Concerto (no 2) by Zilcher can be heard on Youtube.

1 October 2022

More than twenty-five years ago, Michel Chauvy wrote a study on “Furtwängler and Switzerland” for the SWF, published as a “newsletter”.

The text of his study is still as good as new. It is rich in information and the comments on some of Furtwängler’s performances — one thinks of the rehearsal of the 7th Symphony or Beethoven’s First Concerto — are of a rare relevance.

Although the original “paper” brochure was quite attractive, the PDF available to members on the previous website had become outdated and not particularly inviting to read. We therefore thought it best to give it a new layout, by re-editing the text in the same design as the other studies, adding footnotes, and illustrating it with a dozen or so photographs, some of them unpublished or rare.

For the first time, the study is published in both French and English, thus bringing this essential document to a wider audience.

In addition, one of our Swiss members, Christophe Lambinet, wrote a “complement”, shedding new light on Furtwängler’s “Swiss” discography.

To discover these studies, click on the images below.