Concert in Paris, November 1948

France — in this case Paris — was the first country that had suffered from the German occupation to welcome Furtwängler after the war. In January 1948, the conductor appeared with the prestigious and long-established Conservatoire orchestra, l’Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris.

For two years the chief conductor had been André Cluytens, who succeeded Charles Munch in 1946; the presidency belonged by right to the director of the Conservatoire Supérieur, the composer Claude Delvincourt.

In November of the same year, Furtwängler returned for another series of three concerts, again at the Théâtre des Champs Élysées, which had replaced the old and historic hall of the Conservatoire on rue Bergère, long regarded as too cramped and unworthy of a metropolis like Paris. Note that these concerts were given just a few days after the German Requiem in Stockholm.

The programme could hardly be more classic, so there is nothing to add, except the name of the orchestra’s leader, who no doubt took the great violin solo in Schumann's Fourth: Roland Charmy.

Our sincere thanks to the SWF member who provided us with this programme.