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Once, and only once, Furtwängler had a go at stage direction. It was usually a job for Heinz Tietjen, stage director AND conductor, intendant of the national opera, and hihg priest in Bayreuth. It would become customary with the Karajan of the 1960s.

It happened in January 1943 in Vienna: Furtwängler conducted several performances of Tristan und Isolde, with Max Lorenz and Anny Konetzni. Already three years previously he had managed to get out of the reserve the beautiful scenery that Alfred Roller had designed for Mahler’s production in 1903. Yet from that to following in the footsteps of Wymetal or Tietjen… One thing is certain: when Tristan was revived towards the end of that same year, the name of Wymetal reappeared on the programme! To each his own trade.

In any case, the press at the time did not miss the show (click on the article to enlarge it).

Furtwängler always considered it a duty to serve the music of his time. There was Strauss and Pfitzner for the older generation, Hindemith and Bartok for the young. And then there were the others, all those on whom fortune did or did not smile. Who remembers Frommel, Hessenberg or even Braunfels? And so, in order to have at least an idea of what we are talking about, the SWF offers you a panorama of all these composers (some are missing, we know!) with a ‘photo line-up’, a quick presentation and the list of the performances by Furtwängler.

72 composers! Clic on the cover to find out about them.

We announced it in early July.

We are putting online, in our shop, today, the new digital product that bears the reference SWF D02. This is the Eroica given by the Berlin Philharmonic on 8 December 1952, with the Overture to Der Freischütz to open the concert. No doubt that this performance of the Symphony n° 3 is the most grandiose, with a somber character that also marks the Weber.

The difference with the CD released some two years ago and now out of stock? The sound is much more precisely outlined, thanks to the high definition (24/96). Details re-emerge. At a price of 8 €, even those who purchased the CD will be won over!

It is available in our shop

Alexandre Scriabin is a truly curious character and his music has not stopped raising many questions. What did he want to demonstrate with his Poem of Ecstasy? The score, requiring a very large orchestra, hovers between a mysticism imbued with theosophy and torrid eroticism.

Furtwängler, and this was his sole incursion into this composer’s territory, programmed the work in his second concert of his very first season as Nikisch’s successor at the head of the Philharmonic Concerts of Berlin. However, so as to reassure his faithful audience of subscribers, he took good care to follow it with Schumann’s Piano Concerto and Brahms’ Second Symphony. And he hired one of the foremost piano greats at this time, Carl Friedberg (photo).

Here is the facsimile of the programme (32 pages!), also to be consulted on the page 'Ask for the programme'.

It may be that your attentive webmasters are back on the job, but their heads are still basking in the sun somewhere... And so we shall content ourselves with returning to a classic of the summer: the festivals. Let’s go to Bayreuth, in 1936, to see Furtwängler at work (shirt and no tie!). Never did a conductor have so much to do there in one year: the Ring, Parsifal, Lohengrin....

What is he rehearsing? Let’s say, he is rehearsing; it’s already more than enough for a 15 August.

The editors of this website are taking a short break, time off, a change of scenery... in short they are abandoning you, but give you a rendez-vous after 15 August for some new projects. Whether by the sea or in the mountains — like here, Furtwängler in Saint Moritz — have a great vacation!

What do the three composers in the Vienna Philharmonic’s programme of 18, 19 and 20 December 1948 have in common? They are all Viennese, and yet not truly Viennese. Joseph Marx was from Graz but was Viennese by adoption, as was the Hamburg-born Brahms, while Richard Strauss divided his time between Garmisch in Bavaria and Vienna.

But this programme raises another interesting detail. Furtwängler accompanied many soloists throughout his career — pianists, violinists, cellists — but rarely wind instruments. Here, however, we have an exception: an oboe is in the spotlight at this concert, and it's that of Hans Kamesch.

The programme is available here and from the “Get the programme” page.

Our CD SWF 163, with the exceptional Eroica of 8 December 1952 (BPO, Berlin) is out of stock. As we have already explained several times, it is out of the question to reissue such a CD, notably for economic reasons. On the other hand, we offer it to our members as a download in high definition (24/96). Such a product, with its enhanced sound value, could even interest those who already have the CD. The programme has been slightly modified: the digital pack includes the Eroica and the Overture to Der Freischütz from the same concert. It also includes digital sleeve-notes (in both English and French) with the text of Sami Habra, the list of the Eroicas conducted by Furtwängler and the list of the musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic of the time.

This new digital product — the second, after the Ninth of 1942 — bears the reference SWF D02, and will be available for downloading at the price of 8€ on 30 August next.

You can smile even as you learn quite a few little things. You will glean some little-known facts if you read this bilingual study, a virtual report of a recording conducted by Furtwängler. The title says it all… or almost!

It is not often we come across pictures of musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra taken in close-up in the midst of work.

Here are a few, no doubt from 1931, and we have even been able to put a name to each face. Click to enlarge.

And, from the same source, here they all are under the baton of their conductor.

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In its issue no. 25/26 of 26 June 1918, the magazine Signale für die musikalische Welt had a news report from Lübeck: “As guest conductor, Furtwängler — to whom the Lübeck public is greatly attached on account of his activity in the past — conducted The Flying Dutchman with rare force of conviction”.

What about this: an unreported opera performance! There is no date, even if it is clear it was during the spring of 1918, but there is no trace in the known records. Nothing in what has been published concerning his activity in Lübeck and nothing either in his correspondence with Lilli Dieckmann. The nearest we find is this reference in a letter he sent her on 2 May: “It was a pleasure seeing you again in Lübeck…”

So, if you have any info…

Along the same lines we have discovered an unreferenced concert in Landau on 29 June 1920, Furtwängler conducting the Symphony Orchestra of the Palatinate.