Our long-time member Angelo Scottini — author of the superlative study Furtwängler in Italy — is to thank for an exceptional programme, that of Furtwängler’s return to the orchestra on Sunday, April 6, 1947.
Having been confined to Switzerland and finally rehabilitated after more than two years of silence, it was in Italy, in Rome and then in Florence, that he made his comeback with the Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia.
Download the programme.

« Everybody can’t be an orphan… »
Jules Renard, Poil de carotte

A month ago we issued the programme for the February 13, 1942 concert. It was a follow-up to the BPO’s tour through Scandinavian countries. Here is the programme, to be downloaded, of the concert that preceded this journey, on January 11, 1942.

It featured an exceptionally gifted artist, the violinist Guila Bustabo. Her fate refers to the quote in the title…

Is it a programme? Is it a poster? In any case, when classified among our “Get the programme!” documents, it takes the number one spot. Dated December 13th, 1914, it shows the details of a concert in Lübeck by the Verein-Orchester conducted by Furtwängler for the benefit of the Red Cross. Nobody knew then that this institution would have much to do over the next four years…

Portrait by his mother, ca. 1915