A music theory professor attached to the University of North Texas (USA), Timothy L. Jackson PhD, has written a comprehensive article posted on Whiterose Magazine, entitled “When you cannot create new music: a warning from history” dated 1 April 2024.

The author explores the dark years of Nazi Germany, the improbable musical creation of the period, and the “Nordic Festival” that opened in Lübeck on 8 June 1935, with a speech by Alfred Rosenberg, the ideologue of the National Socialist Party. He fully associates Furtwängler with it, indicating on several occasions that on that day the conductor had led his Berlin Philharmonic in a programme that included Sibelius’s 7th Symphony. He even posted the following photo on the site, with a caption differing from the original one on the newspaper from which it was taken, and linking it to a photo of Rosenberg addressing the crowd gathered on 8 June.

No, Furtwängler did not conduct his orchestra in Lübeck on that date and after Rosenberg’s speech! He was on tour, on the road from Munich to Stuttgart. It was on June 26 that Furtwängler and his Philharmoniker actually visited Lübeck. All you had to do was consult the BPO archives and the newspapers of the time to write about it.

That Dr Jackson portrays Furtwängler in a less than favourable light, even darkening him, is his absolute right. But for him to arrange facts and dates in order to distort the truth demonstrates a lack of the most elementary probity, a virtue that we would expect from a “Distinguished University Research Professor”. For such is his position.

We pointed this out to him and requested a correction to his article. We haven’t even received a reply…

The programme — facsimilé in pdf — of the Vienna Philharmonic’s concert on 23 November 1941 announced this on page two: ‘Furtwängler’s recovery’.

The article explains that this concert marks the return — at least to Vienna — of the eminent conductor after several months’ downtime as a result of a serious skiing accident in Sankt-Anton in mid-February of the same year. On the slopes of this Tyrolean resort, the musician had a fall that led to several operations. Away from the conductor’s podium, he seized the opportunity to write his long article, The Wagner Case, a critique of Nietsche’s book.

On 19 October, Furtwängler resumed his activities, first in Berlin and Hamburg, then in Stockholm, Zurich and Bern.

The Berliner illustrierte Zeitung of 27 March had its cover with Furtwängler photographed shortly before his accident, but made no mention of it.

As we announced (news from 29 May), now is available on the shop the digital pack SWF D19, which features the complete recording of Furtwängler’s last concert with the Vienna Philharmonic in Salzburg on 30 August 1954.

It features Beethoven’s 7th and 8th symphonies, framing the Great Fugue. Once again Christophe Hénault has made the most of the source available.

The presentation text (booklet in French + digital booklet in English) is by Philippe Venturini, a journalist long attached to the Monde de la Musique and a columnist for France Musique.

As with all our ‘long’ products (over 75 minutes), the download (high definition + CD files) is priced at €15.

Discover the podcast dedicated to it:

This photo is well known; it is part of a set that has been reproduced several times. Furtwängler — chilled but lively — conducts an imaginary orchestra, sitting before his score on a boat.

Where? When? What? Who? Do we know more about it? Yes. After a great deal of research, we are finally lifting the veil on this interesting snapshot. All you have to do is turn your head or… your computer upside down.

The photo was taken on Lake Geneva, on May 18, 1930, on the way to Montreux. Furtwängler and his touring Berliner orchestra performed a concert there that evening. The conductor was absorbed in reading a score to be played: Schumann’s First Symphony. The series of photos is the work of Paul Bose, a Philharmonic musician comfortably equipped with a state-of-the-art Leica. He was a flute (and piccolo) player with the orchestra from 1914 to 1940.