You thought you knew…

In five weeks from now our new production will be available to download, after the Ninth of 1942 and the Eroica of 1952 which have just been posted online.

This new reference (SWF D03): Brahms’ German Requiem, performed in Stockholm in November 1948.

Connoisseurs know it already: we have only three documents of Furtwängler’s performance of this masterpiece. More than 20 years ago the SWF republished the Lucerne concert of 1947; a magnificent and moving reading, yet one that required listeners to have “ears of faith”, so precarious was the sound. Let us forget the recording, incomplete in any case, of Vienna 1951: none of the performers seems to be at their best. There remains the recording of the concert in Stockholm on 19 November 1948  — the third concert of the series. We have known of this for more than 40 years, or rather we thought we knew it in re-releases that ranged from the dreadful to the just about passable. It was essential that the SWF tackle the issue, yet only by showing itself to be exemplary so that at last you could appreciate the greatness of this performance at its true value.

  Konserthuset in 1948

In order to do this, we asked Swedish Radio for a high definition copy from its archive. This was then entrusted to the studio Art et Son — Christophe Hénault —, who, by going beyond his skilful work in reducing the background noise and appropriately equalising the tone-colours, gave the sound its full potential with, notably, a phenomenal and hitherto unexampled dynamic, and a transparency that brings out the choral sections. The German Requiem is above all a vocal work, and the choral sections carefully prepared by Johannes Norrby are a constant reminder of this, supported as they are by an attentive orchestra, with the contributions of two excellent soloists, albeit they are relatively little-known outside Sweden: Kerstin Lindberg-Torlind and Bernhard Sönnerstedt.

It is in this kind of re-release that high definition, 24/96, finds total justification, highlighting tiny details, yet also giving life to the musical texture. That said, the digital pack includes the same files in ‘CD format.

Two Swedish correspondents, Nils-Göran Olve, the son of an orchestral violinist who took part in these evenings, and Göran Söderwall, a member of the SWF, offered to prepare one of the most copious booklets we have ever presented. Not only have they drawn up a table of the relationship of Furtwängler with the Orchestra and the context of these evenings, but they have also translated for us all the dithyrambic press articles that appeared on the morrow of the concert!

We have added the biographies of the performers, the list of the orchestral musicians, the trilingual texts of the Requiem, and a facsimile of the programme. The booklet is offered in two versions, French and English, illustrated with some rare iconography.

In order to achieve this result, we have been able to count on the help of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus of Stockholm, who responded with great generosity  to our solicitations. Along with Swedish Radio and our two Swedish correspondents, may they here receive our most grateful thanks.

13 September 2018

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