Month: January 2025
News
The newspapers announced it well in advance: on 16 February 1939, Furtwängler was to take part in a chamber music concert at the Conventgarten in Hamburg. That evening, he was to be the pianist partner of violinist Erika Besserer — a pupil of Joachim, born in 1887 and who died in 1951 — for a performance of the composer-conductor’s Sonata in D minor. The programme also was to feature works for two violins and piano, performed by Besserer and Georg von Staehr, violins, and Reiner Zipperling, piano. The Sonata had been premiered a year earlier by Hugo Kolberg, Konzertmeister of the BPO, with Furtwängler playing the piano.
But the daily newspapers of 14 February informed their readers that on 11 and 12 February, during the concerts in Vienna, Furtwängler had contracted a severe case of flu. He would not in fact return to conducting again until two months afterwards.
The chamber music concert was therefore cancelled. Postponed to a later date, the newspapers seem to suggest, but there is no sign of any reprogramming…
Vienna, November 1943. Furtwängler devised a rather curious programme. While it is by no means unusual to associate Mozart with Richard Strauss — the latter having been an unconditional admirer of the former — it is far more unusual to include two symphonic poems by the illustrious Bavarian composer on the same programme: Till Eulenspiegel and Also sprach Zarathustra.
It should be noted that this is one of the last performances of Zarathustra. Furtwängler only performed the work again once, at the Colon in Buenos-Aires, seven years later.
Here you will find the facsimile of the programme, plus a facsimile of the ticket!
Photo probably taken at the concert. Published in the Wiener Illustrierte Zeitung in April 1944
On 14 June, we published an announcement for a missing concert — a performance by the Vienna Philharmonic with Furtwängler in Prague, announced for 18 February 1929, which was mysteriously cancelled. The VPO archives were unable to shed any light on the reasons for the cancellation.
Czech Jiry Chromcak has come to the rescue by carrying out research, the results of which solve this mystery.
A cold snap — continental arctic air from Russia — hit Czechoslovakia in the winter of 1929, and on 11 February the thermometer dropped to -42.2°C (-44°F), an all-time record! The decision to cancel had been taken earlier, when the temperature was already -20°C (-4°F), anticipating the difficulties of travelling. In March, it was announced that the concert would still take place, without any indication of the date (the tickets were still valid), but the orchestra’s schedule no doubt no longer made it possible to travel for such a short time.
Many thanks to Jiry Chromcak.
Below is the Lidové noviny (‘People’s Daily’) of 18 February 1929, which covers the subject as a humorous comic strip…
The Wilhelm Furtwängler Centre of Japan releases a 5-CD album : WFHC-063/67.
It focuses on Beethoven’s 7th and 8th symphonies, programmed together. Here we find the Stockholm concert of 13 November 1948, the Berlin concert of April 1953 and, finally, the Salzburg Festival concert of 30 August 1954.
It also includes the works that complemented these programmes: Leonore III (and rehearsal) in Stockholm, Till Eulenspiegel in Berlin, the Grand Fugue in Salzburg, also the Leonore III from a Magnetofonkonzert in Vienna (2 June 1944) as an extra.
As with the other products of this association — see the shop —, it has to be ordered directly from the WFCJ, as a member, at the price of 8000 yens (±€50) + postage (for shipping outside Japan).