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.