Wilhelm Furtwangler: The Great EMI Recordings
Product ID: 74911292
Wilhelm Gustav Heinrich Ernst Martin Furtwängler, to give him his full name, was born in Berlin on 25 January 1886. His father was an archaeologist and his mother a painter. Both were cultured and enlightened people who brought up their eldest son in the beliefs of German humanism. When the young Wilhelm showed early signs of exceptional talent they decided to provide him with a private education based around the Arts. Although his artistic interests were wide it was music that eventually became his overriding passion and he started learning the piano at an early age, composing his first music at the age of seven. The idea of becoming a composer was his prime ambition, despite the failure of his early attempts at composition. Several factors led to Furtwängler taking up the baton: the wish to conduct his own works; his increasing interest in the art of interpretation and the need to make a living, following the death of his father in 1907. His first concert as conductor was in Munich in 1906 with a programme of works by Bruckner and Beethoven as well as one of his own pieces. His rise to fame as a conductor was quite rapid and, after working in Breslau, Zurich and at the court opera in Munich, he gained his first big appointments at the Lübeck Opera (1911-1915) and in Mannheim (1915-1920). In 1920 he succeeded Richard Strauss as conductor of the Berlin Staatsoper concerts and in 1922, after the death of Nikisch, he took over the conductorship of the Leipzig Gewandhaus and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras. It was at this time that he also began a long and successful relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. But it was with the Berlin Philharmonic that Furtwängler was to remain for the rest of his career. Throughout the 1920s and '30s Furtwängler and the Berlin Philharmonic went on a series of European tours to Scandinavia, Switzerland, Italy, Hungary and England. In 1937 Furtwängler conducted at Covent Garden as part of the Coronation celebrations and, in 1938, he was back again to conduct two cycles of the Ring. At this time, too, Furtwängler found himself inextricably involved in the politics of Germany. His liberal outlook meant that it was difficult for him to see Nazism as a serious threat to his country and he dissociated himself from it and opposed it whenever he could. He refused to give the Nazi salute, even in the presence of Adolf Hitler, and used his influence to save the lives of as many Jewish musicians as he could. In spite of this and because of his rather naive political outlook many outside Germany saw his continued residence and musical activity as a kind of collaboration. The final ten years of Furtwängler's life were dogged by controversy, not helped by the American Military Government in post-war Germany delaying his denazification process until 1947, when he was once again allowed to take up conducting. Success in Europe quickly followed and he appeared with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras as well as local orchestras in London, Stockholm, Edinburgh, Lucerne, Milan, Salzburg and Paris. It is from this time that the superb recordings in this 20-CD set were made. Here is a special selection of some of EMI's celebrated Furtwängler recordings, some recorded live at concerts and some made in the studios. The combination of Furtwängler and EMI brought about one of the greatest collaborations in recording history and the Company is proud to be able to contribute this set to the 125th birthday celebrations of a great conductor
S**O
The real deal.
Whenever there is a Furtwangler reissue from a major record label such as EMI or DG, there comes a chorus of critics the size of the Wiener Singverein shouting "you can do better." This raises the following questions: where can you do better, how much better can you do, and at what cost. The short answer is: on various import labels such as Audite, Naxos and Tahra, you can do marginally better, and it will cost you plenty.The fact is, you just can't get a broader base of Furtwangler recordings, covering a variety of Classic, Romantic, and Modern orchestral works than you can here at this price, plus you get two complete operas.While EMI's reputation for remastering is deservedly poor, the source material for this set is the best available. The majority of this set consists of studio recordings made in the early 50's. A studio recording in good 50's mono is going to sound better than a live recording from the 40's no matter how good the remastering of the 40's recording is.There are also those who deride Furtwangler's studio recordings as not representative of his art or in some way less spontaneous and therefore inferior to his live performances. They are somewhat less spontaneous, but in exchange for that loss of some spontaneity, you get much better ensemble playing and a lack of audience hacking and orchestral gaffes - both of which can be severe in many of his live recordings. Also, these cough's, poor entrances, and questionable intonation become less endearing with each repeated listening. It is in repeated listening that the studio recordings show their worth.In a nutshell, this is what you are getting:Disc 1: Beethoven 1 & 3, Wiener Philharmoniker (VPO), studio, 24, 26-28.XI.1952.Disc 2: Beethoven 2 (live, 3.X.1948, Royal Albert Hall) & 4 (studio, 1-3.XII.1952), VPO.Disc 3: Beethoven 5 & 7, VPO, studio 28.II & 1.III.1954; 18-19.1950 respectively. The 7th has never sounded better.Disc 4: Beethoven 6 (studio, 24-25.XI & 1.XII.1952) VPO, & 8 (live, Stockholm Philharmonic, 13.XI.1948).Disc 5: Beethoven 9, live, Bayreuther Festspiele, 29.VII.1951.Disc 6: Beethoven Piano Concerto #5, Edwin Fischer, studio 19-20.II.1951; Bartok Violin Concerto #2, Menuhin, studio 12-13.IX.1953.Disc 7: Beethoven Violin Concerto, Lucerne, 28-29.VIII.1949 (as remastered by Testament); Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, studio 25-26.V.1952, Menuhin.Discs 8 & 9 Beethoven Fidelio, studio 13-17.X.1953.Disc 10: Brahms, Hungarian Dances 1, 3, & 10, studio 4.IV.1949, Haydn Variations, studio 30.III & 2.IV.1949, Brahms 1, live 27.I.1952 all VPO.Disc 11: Brahms 2, live 7.V.1952 BPO (notes incorrectly say VPO), Brahms 3, live 18.XII.1949, BPO - the notes say 8.XII.1949 VPO, but that is incorrect.Disc 12: Brahms 4, live, BPO 24.X.1948 (notes say VPO, but again it is the BPO); Beethoven Coriolan Overture, studio VPO 24.X.1948, Leonore Overture #2, studio BPO 4-5.IV.1954.Disc 13: Brahms Violin Concerto, Lucerne Festival Orchestra, studio 28-29.VIII.1949; Brahms Double Concerto, live 27.I.1952 (Boskovsky, Brabec, VPO).Disc 14: Mozart 40, VPO, studio 7-8.XII.1948 & 17.II.1949; Tchaikovsky 6, BPO, studio 25-27.X.1938.Disc 15: R. Strauss, Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel, Tod und Verklaerung, VPO, studio 1954, 1954, 1950 respectively; Furtwangler Symphonic Concerto (2nd mvmnt only) studio, 25.IV.1939.Discs 16-19 Wagner, Tristan und Isolde, studio 10-22.VI.1952.Disc 20: Haydn 94, Cherubini Anacreon Ov., Schubert 8, Liszt Les Preludes, all VPO, studio, 1950-1954.Disc 21: Remembering Furtwangler (audio documentary).So... if you are looking for improvements to what is offered here and money is no object, I would recommend the following:Beethoven 3, live BPO 08.XII.1952Beethoven 6 and 5, live BPO 23.V.1954Brahms 3, live BPO 27.IV.1954Brahms 4, live (same recording as here, but better remastering from a better source) 24.X.1948all available as part of Edition Wilhelm Furtwängler - The Complete RIAS Recordings. An excellent Bruckner 8 comes with this set, and you really should hear his Bruckner. Also, the Brahms 3 from the EMI set is duped here, but in better sound.Beethoven 9, live 22.8.1954, Philharmonia Orchestraavailable here Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (8/22/1954).Brahms 1, live, 1951, NDR Orchestraavailable on Tahra but no product link (search for it).As a supplement to the above, I recommend the following other recordings by Furtwangler:Wagner: Die Walkure [Martha Modl, Leonie Rysanek, Margarete Klose, Ludwig Suthaus, Ferdinand Frantz, Gottlob Frick; Wilhelm Furtwangler] (1954 EMI Studio recording; Remastered on Naxos Historical)Mozart: Symphony #40/Piano Concerto #20/Serenades #10 'Gran Partita' & #13 'Eine Kleine Nachtmusik - Wilhelm Furtwangler, Berlin Philharmonic - dupes Symphony 40 above, but has other items of interest.Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 / Haydn: Symphony No. 88 / Beethoven: Coriolan Overture, Op.62 / Schumann: Symphony No. 1This list could go on. The wartime recordings from DG are interesting, but sloppy and in poor sound. You can easily find them on Amazon if you are interested. Try and get the CD versions of the DG sets, as the MP3 versions are not gaplessly encoded.
A**E
Outstanding conducting, excellent sound, fantastic value!
This is a fabulous box set. I resisted buying it for a long time, but I'm glad I finally gave in. The 2011 remasters on many of the CDs in this set (notably and most significantly, most of the Beethoven and Brahms items) are excellent and seem to be identical to the DSD masters that were used to produce the Japanese SACDs, at least from comparisons I've made with those SACDs that I own. No new remasters were made for this box set, so some of the CDs here are quite old digital masters. But these are all mono recordings, many of them 78s, so sound is not the main reason for buying this set. But to hear the greatest conductor of the 20th century in repertoire that was central to his career is a privilege. I agree with most admirers of Furtwangler that his greatest achievements were in live performances. But granting that, there is a tendency to minimize the value and importance of his studio recordings, which is too bad. Nevertheless, many of the CDs here are live performances of those works which Furtwangler never recorded in the studio for EMI/HMV. The one glaring omission in this box set is Bruckner. Furtwangler made no commercial recording of any Bruckner symphony, but several amazing live performances have survived. One of these, the Bruckner 7th from 1949, was released on Bruckner: Symphony No.7 by EMI (now Warner), but was unfortunately not included in this box set - a very sad omission. Of course, it would have been great for the box set to have included one of the Flagstad recordings of the Immolation Scene, and one can lament other omissions. But this is a great set. And the price is unbeatable for the value of what's included. Other reviewers have given low ratings to the sound on these CDs. I don't know what they expect quite frankly. These are recordings from the 1940s and 1950s (even some from the 1930s) and I believe they have never sounded better than they sound here. The detail in the orchestral sound that I hear in the Beethoven and Brahms remasters is quite phenomenal and there is far greater warmth and depth in the sound than in earlier EMI releases, including the previous incarnation of the Beethoven: The 9 Symphonies from around 2000.
D**R
emi sacd's
I have been enjoying the latest sacd emi Furtwangler series.They sound warmer and sweeter than my previous ones. Are they worth the extra bucks? Art is so subjective, you'll have to make that call, but we are talking Furtwangler here... Playing over an average $10,000 sacd (2 channel)system, (that's everything, speakers, player subwoffer and amp...). The operas also seem to bring out a more rounded presence in the vocals thats quite pleasing to my ear. Now keep in mind these are minor improvments but improvments they are! Be bold and try one, i think you'll be suprised.
B**O
Poor Quality Recordings
I recognize how wonderful these performances must have been, but many were recorded in the late 1940's the most recent the mid 1950's.Some of them, the sound quality is TERRIBLE! It sounds like you are playing an old scratched up record on an old victrola. A good stereo only makes it sound worse.I am sorry but DONT BUY IT because you won't enjoy listening to it.If I had known I would not have bought it.Magoo....
K**G
Pretty good
I usually go for products that give good value for the dollar.It(The Great EMI Recordings) was a bargain at that price
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