Concert of 7 November 1943

There would be a book to write — or at least a few chapters — about Furtwängler and Strauss. Although he enjoyed a good relationship with his senior colleague, never did he fall into the category of unconditional admirers of the master, such as Böhm or Krauss.

In Mannheim, he performed Salome and Ariadne but had little taste for the operas that followed, particularly The Knight of the Rose. And, after a sequence of performances of Elektra, when he premiered Arabella at the Berlin Staatsoper, was it out of conviction or to fulfil the duties of his position...?

As for the symphonic corpus, while it is true that Till Eulenspiegel or Don Juan were very much programmed, and to a lesser extent Death and Transfiguration, he was less eager to defend the ‘big works’ such as Zarathustra, the Domestica, Heldenleben, not to mention Don Quixote, only once programmed...

On the other hand, the latest Strauss, the one after his death, aroused renewed interest: the Metamorphosen, the Oboe Concerto, and above all the Vier letzte Lieder, performed just once, but for the world premiere...

Furtwängler and Richard Strauss, 15 November 1933