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...
