Furtwangler recordings of Richard Strauss

[Barbirollians]

Having listened to his VPO recordings of Don Juan, Death and Transfiguration and Till Eulenspiegel it seems WF had an ability to make this music sound better than it is and without a sniff of glib surface sheen.

I should love to have heard a WF Alpensinfonie.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

No mountains, WF kept it in the family:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58y8ig8E060

... and, of course:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-odXYLs-iE4

[Conchis]

Strauss, as he himself acknowledged, was a composer of 'the second order.'

I think the compositions mentioned by Barbirollans are technically adept but not especially profound - in fact, they seem to be yearning for a profundity they don't have. I'd say the same for Eine Alpensinfonie, which remains a controversial work.

Furtwangler does indeed make them sound better than they are - or, rather, better than most other conductors can make them sound.

[Beef Oven!]

Furtwangler does indeed make them sound better than they are

[Beef Oven!]

Strauss, as he himself acknowledged, was a composer of 'the second order.'

[Beef Oven!]

Tod & Verklarung, Metomorphosen & Don Juan - Good enough for Klemperer, good enough for ....... me?

[cloughie]

Strauss, as he himself acknowledged, was a composer of 'the second order.'

I think the compositions mentioned by Barbirollans are technically adept but not especially profound - in fact, they seem to be yearning for a profundity they don't have. I'd say the same for Eine Alpensinfonie, which remains a controversial work.

Furtwangler does indeed make them sound better than they are - or, rather, better than most other conductors can make them sound.

The stuff discussed here shows it is August and thus the silly season. If RSt said he was of the second order then he was just being modest. As for Furtwangler, yes he was good but to make claims that he made things sound better than they are is overstatement. His interpretations of RSt are no more remarkable than Reiner, Mehta, Klemperer, Karajan, Krauss, Kempe, Maazel, Szell, Ormandy, Leinsdorf....and others I can list!

[Barbirollians]

The stuff discussed here shows it is August and thus the silly season. If RSt said he was of the second order then he was just being modest. As for Furtwangler, yes he was good but to make claims that he made things sound better than they are is overstatement. His interpretations of RSt are no more remarkable than Reiner, Mehta, Klemperer, Karajan, Krauss, Kempe, Maazel, Szell, Ormandy, Leinsdorf....and others I can list!

They are different to those recordings in that they seem to show more depth in the music to my ears especially in Don Juan and D and T and Till is genuinely amusing rather than forced.

I don't agree either that conductors can't make things sound better than they are . The old quote of a critic from the late 1950s about the Rustic Wedding Symphony sums it up ( and no doubt I paraphrase) " Last month after hearing Beecham conduct the RWS I wondered why such a marvellous piece wasn't played more often - after hearing it conducted by X I understood why "

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I don't agree either that conductors can't make things sound better than they are . The old quote of a critic from the late 1950s about the Rustic Wedding Symphony sums it up ( and no doubt I paraphrase) " Last month after hearing Beecham conduct the RWS I wondered why such a marvellous piece wasn't played more often - after hearing it conducted by X I understood why "

But unless Beecham changed the notes, then surely he was making it sound as good as (in this instance) Goldmark wrote it? The fault is in conductor x, rather than in the Music? (If, indeed, Beecham had "edited" Goldmark's score, then that's a different matter, of course.)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I should love to have heard a WF Alpensinfonie.

So would I, but most conductors shunned it in WF's time, including Reiner. However, Barenboim's Chicago reading has something of Furtwangler's style.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

VW congratulated Sir Adrian Boult for making one of his symphonies sound better than it was.

It's just a way of paying a compliment.

[cloughie]

They are different to those recordings in that they seem to show more depth in the music to my ears especially in Don Juan and D and T and Till is genuinely amusing rather than forced.

I don't agree either that conductors can't make things sound better than they are . The old quote of a critic from the late 1950s about the Rustic Wedding Symphony sums it up ( and no doubt I paraphrase) " Last month after hearing Beecham conduct the RWS I wondered why such a marvellous piece wasn't played more often - after hearing it conducted by X I understood why "

Again I disagree there are other excellent RWS, not least Previn.

[cloughie]

But unless Beecham changed the notes, then surely he was making it sound as good as (in this instance) Goldmark wrote it? The fault is in conductor x, rather than in the Music? (If, indeed, Beecham had "edited" Goldmark's score, then that's a different matter, of course.)

Do you think he tinkered a little, ferney?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Do you think he tinkered a little, ferney?

I honestly don't know, cloughie; I've never been so impressed by the work that I've wanted to examine the score.

[Petrushka]

I think from what I recall reading somewhere, WF had an ambivalent attitude to Strauss, perhaps born out of events during the Third Reich.

There is a searing live performance of Metamorphosen given in Berlin with the BPO on October 27 1947 included in a DG box. Karajan made his celebrated VPO recording, partly on the very same day.