Volume 2 of our complete Polydor collection is now available in the shop.

Wagner is honoured with the Prelude and Liebestod, the first in a long series, but above all with a Prelude from Lohengrin, in which the strings of the BPO reveal their incredible flexibility. And let us remember that it was only a year earlier that Furtwängler conducted this opera for the first time!

Furtwängler always knew how to bring out the grandeur — yet with a certain touching naivety — of the overture to Rosamunde, as well as the exuberance, in an impeccable performance, of Till Eulenspiegel.

As with the previous volume, Félix Matus-Echaiz has written an analytical essay, staying as true as possible to the conductor’s intentions.

Content: Wagner Lohengrin: Prelude – Wagner Tristan & Isolde: Prelude, Liebestod – Schubert Rosamunde: Overture – R. Strauss Till Eulenspiegel – Till Eulenspiegel (rehearsal)

Next episode: August/September.

Once again, examining newspapers from the period sheds interesting light on concert programming. An announced concert does not always mean an actual concert, and one date can hide another…

This was the case with the concerts given by Furtwängler in the short series with the BPO, preceding his appointment in 1922 as conductor of the Philharmonic concerts.

On 2 March 1919, an advertisement announced the upcoming concert on the 14th at the Philharmonie: Furtwängler would conduct Beethoven’s Leonore II Overture and Violin Concerto, Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night and Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel. And, for the first time, Bronislaw Huberman would be his soloist. The concert did not take place, and we have been unable to ascertain the reason for its cancellation. Huberman and Furtwängler did not appear together for the first time until December 1925, performing Brahms’ Concerto.

Similarly, on 2 November, a BPO concert with Edwin Ficher is announced for the 14th. The programme included Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony, Mozart’s Concerto in E flat major (presumably No. 22) and the overture to Der Freischütz. However, this concert did not take place. The two musicians would performed together on 13 February, with Brahms’ Second Concerto featuring in the second half of the programme. With Bruckner’s Eighth, it’s a very light menu…

Autumn 1947. It had only been five months since Furtwängler resumed his conducting career. And he had only performed once with his Berlin orchestra, in May, for a series of four concerts featuring an all-Beethoven programme.

In September, he conducts a series of concerts with the BPO. Two at the Titania Palast — on the 14th and 15th — as part of the BPO’s season; one on the 17th in Potsdam; and, in between, a concert in the Radio season, given in the large auditorium of the Radio House, Masurenallee.

The programme is the same: Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphoses, Strauss’ Don Juan, and Brahms’s Second Symphony.

As we know, this has resulted in two superb recordings of works by Hindemith and Strauss. Attached is a facsimile of the concert programme for 16 September.

Our faithful member, Roger Smithson, who is also a specialist on pianist Edwin Fischer, has written a study for us on the legendary recording of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto, performed by this great pianist and the Philharmonia conducted by Furtwängler.

Thanks to him, we know more about the recording conditions at Abbey Road Studios and the concert that followed at the Royal Albert Hall.

The study is available in PDF format in two versions, English and French. We remind you that a facsimile of the concert programme is also available on our website.