Everyone who makes frequent use of the list of Furtwängler’s concerts featured on this site knows that almost all of the concerts are listed. There are however still a number that do not give details of the programmes, principally the concerts given by the BPO during tours at the end of the 1930s and the very early 1940s. As new information is found, we are keen to complete our documentation.
And that is the case with this BPO concert in Dresden, given at the beginning of 1941 in the ‘Gewerbehaus’, the home of the city’s Philharmonic Orchestra. Our list agrees with Peter Muck's voluminous tome on the Berliners, showing the date as 5 February, yet the official programme — reproduced below — gives it as 5 January. Which prompts us to ask whether we are all wrong.
Not at all! If Erich Knoblauch, the concert agent, had consulted his calendar, he would have noticed that ‘5 Januar' was not a 'Mittwoch' (Wednesday) as he writes, but a 'Sonntag' (Sunday), whereas 5 February was indeed a Wednesday. And, when under Hermann Zilcher's Concerto he added the word 'Uraufführung', he was well aware that the official world premiere would take place in Berlin, during the series of subscription concerts on 2, 3 and 4 February. The day after the last of these concerts, on their visit to Dresden, the Berliners only needed to repeat the same programme (with the exception of the Overture to The Bartered Bride by Smetana).
Finally, for those who might be interested, this Concerto (no 2) by Zilcher can be heard on Youtube.
