Month: April 2024
News
This is one of those facsimiles of programs we have been waiting for, as the concert is so emblematic of Furtwängler: his orchestra, in his concert hall, performing his repertoire, at the pinnacle of his career. It was the end of June 1943, and thanks to the recording, the event will live on forever.
The Wilhelm Furtwängler Centre of Japan (http://furt-centre.com/english/eindex.htm)
The cover, reproduced below, clearly identifies the content. No further comment, except to point out that the 1943 Stockholm Schubert concert was the subject of a product from our association (SWF D06), available as a high-definition download (€9).
The Japanese product is available at a price of 6,500 yen (around €40 or US$43), in addition, of course, to the membership fee.
One point is worth emphasizing: the mastering was carried out with both orchestras (Berlin and Vienna) on the same pitch, A = 443. We’ll come back to this point shortly, as it is the subject of much debate.
You may find our new product in the shop, and available for streaming:
SWF D14
As already mentioned in the last two news items (22 March and 29 March), this is the recording of Bruckner’s 8th Symphony on 10 April 1954, in Vienna. 70 years ago…
You will appreciate the outstanding sound we have been able to obtain from the tape, and by the work of Christophe Hénault, who has managed to erase many of the ‘scoriae’ that tainted the music.
On the home page, you’ll find a link to a podcast produced by Guilhem Chameyrat, in which our President, Félix Matus-Echaiz, speaks with Jean-Claude Hulot, music journalist and Bruckner specialist. This podcast is also available to download in the digital pack (and: https://youtu.be/a1KU47jbpiY?si=plGjCra_-vwEETQn), along with:
– audio files (HD and CD quality),
– a digital booklet (in French and English), with a text by Mark Kluge, and many photos,
– an article about technical aspects, A tribute to the C12, pdf format,
– pdfs of the cover and inlay card, for those wishing to burn a CD (attention: over 80′ of music),
– a facsimile of the concert programme.
Lastly, a wish. We have been releasing albums (the recent ‘Lucerne’, the ‘Stockholm Ninth’ etc.), but we haven’t had any feedback… You are welcome to write a comment to this article. Feel free to do so!
We are constantly updating our list of concerts. And some of our members reply to the “wanted notices” we post in the news. This was the case for the concert with the Blüthner Orchester in 1915.
Why is this so? The work carried out over thirty years ago by René Trémine, supplemented by other discoveries — in particular the BPO’s list of touring concerts — still constitutes a reliable and exhaustive base, the source of the list of our site.
But the availability of programmes on major orchestras’ websites (Vienna Philharmonic and Symphony, New York, Frankfurt…) and above all the digitisation of newspapers from the period mean that it is possible to compare the programmes announced — and often included as such in the ‘list’ — with the reality of what was actually played, with changes, or even astonishing surprises, that we are eager to incorporate into the database.
Two examples, just for Mannheim, in February 1919:
– On the 8th: the list announced, with pianist Lili Koppel performing, Schumann’s Concerto and Liszt’s Fantaisie hongroise. In fact, the Orchestra and Furtwängler performed Hungaria, Liszt’s symphonic poem, while Koppel, with the same orchestra, performed the Konzertstück opus 40 by Cécile Chaminade as well as Schumann!
– On the 18th: cellist Paul Grümmer was scheduled to perform Eugène d’Albert’s Cello Concerto, a premiere in Mannheim. However, due to travel problems, he was replaced at the very last moment by soprano Elfriede Müller (from the Nationaltheater), who sang an aria from Gluck’s Alceste. But surprise, surprise: Paul Grümmer had just arrived and, replacing the concerto, he performed Max Reger’s Suite for Solo Cello, in A minor, Opus 131 No. 3, which had also been included in the programme.
It’s always comforting to think that we still have something to grind.
