Another Furtwängler Ninth?!!

[Karafan]

The 1954 Lucerne Philharmonia sounds pretty good in the Furtwangler Legendary Concerts remastering .

The Tahra SACD is stellar!

[Tapiola]

Thanks to Thropplenoggin for the alert to this newly released Furtwangler.

And, yes, Clements' review is down to his usually miserable and misinformed standards in such things. Petrushka was far too polite (unlike myself) to make explicit Clements' inaccurate statements on the provenance of the Bayreuth 1951 9th - a performance largely "live" but patched in with rehearsal excerpts to correct dodgy entries, wrong notes etc.

As of course we all know, there are two 1942 9ths under Furtwangler - the one (I imagine) alluded to by Caliban, Richard and Throppers upthread is the March 1942 performance, an unbelievably ferocious, angry reading. But there is also the performance of April 19th, which Furtwangler was apparently manipulated into conducting by Goebbels, to celebrate the eve of Hitler's birthday. The April performance's sole release, on Archipel, is taken from an over the air recording and suffers from pretty poor sound, in comparison to the March recording. One can almost hear the same ferocity as is present in the March performance but the sound comes to us as if through a veil. However, the finale's coda, which Furtwangler always took fast is stretched almost - very almost - to breaking point. It's been argued (Michael Tanner) that here F is trying to subvert the whole performance by attempted derailment into chaos of the last few bars. It certainly is a singularly hair-raising moment in an unforgettable performance.

[Karafan]

Thanks to Thropplenoggin for the alert to this newly released Furtwangler.

And, yes, Clements' review is down to his usually miserable and misinformed standards in such things. Petrushka was far too polite (unlike myself) to make explicit Clements' inaccurate statements on the provenance of the Bayreuth 1951 9th - a performance largely "live" but patched in with rehearsal excerpts to correct dodgy entries, wrong notes etc.

As of course we all know, there are two 1942 9ths under Furtwangler - the one (I imagine) alluded to by Caliban, Richard and Throppers upthread is the March 1942 performance, an unbelievably ferocious, angry reading. But there is also the performance of April 19th, which Furtwangler was apparently manipulated into conducting by Goebbels, to celebrate the eve of Hitler's birthday. The April performance's sole release, on Archipel, is taken from an over the air recording and suffers from pretty poor sound, in comparison to the March recording. One can almost hear the same ferocity as is present in the March performance but the sound comes to us as if through a veil. However, the finale's coda, which Furtwangler always took fast is stretched almost - very almost - to breaking point. It's been argued (Michael Tanner) that here F is trying to subvert the whole performance by attempted derailment into chaos of the last few bars. It certainly is a singularly hair-raising moment in an unforgettable performance.

Thanks for that reference, Tapiola, one clearly worthy of further investigation....
K.

[Barbirollians]

Anyone heard the Audite transfer of the Lucerne Ninth - a reviewer on Music We’d suggested the LPs were better than the Tahra CD but I was wondering about the Audite Hybrid SACD.

Listened to the Tahra today such a marvellous performance.

[Cockney Sparrow]

Short "preview" of the tracks for the Audite (for sound quality assessment?) on their download page:

https://www.audite.de/en/product/CD/95641-wilhelm_furtwaengler_conducts_beethovens_symphony_no_9.html

The album is on Google play music (their Spotify equivalent) so may be on Apple Music / Spotify, etc - but if you have access there listen soon, as I get the idea companies might get their recent releases taken down for a while (to give sales a chance). When I say "get the idea" this is a suspicion - some recent releases have become "unavailable" after I've enjoyed playing them for a few days, or a week or so. Audite is also on Naxos Music Library but this disc is not there - it can take a few weeks for new releases to appear there.

[Dave2002]

I'm mostly amazed when I watch these Youtubes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2itdv1aEpG4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHDXdbSWu0E

I think everyone should see the first one at least once, as a reminder of those times.

[Once Was 4]

Thanks to Thropplenoggin for the alert to this newly released Furtwangler.

And, yes, Clements' review is down to his usually miserable and misinformed standards in such things. Petrushka was far too polite (unlike myself) to make explicit Clements' inaccurate statements on the provenance of the Bayreuth 1951 9th - a performance largely "live" but patched in with rehearsal excerpts to correct dodgy entries, wrong notes etc.

As of course we all know, there are two 1942 9ths under Furtwangler - the one (I imagine) alluded to by Caliban, Richard and Throppers upthread is the March 1942 performance, an unbelievably ferocious, angry reading. But there is also the performance of April 19th, which Furtwangler was apparently manipulated into conducting by Goebbels, to celebrate the eve of Hitler's birthday. The April performance's sole release, on Archipel, is taken from an over the air recording and suffers from pretty poor sound, in comparison to the March recording. One can almost hear the same ferocity as is present in the March performance but the sound comes to us as if through a veil. However, the finale's coda, which Furtwangler always took fast is stretched almost - very almost - to breaking point. It's been argued (Michael Tanner) that here F is trying to subvert the whole performance by attempted derailment into chaos of the last few bars. It certainly is a singularly hair-raising moment in an unforgettable performance.

Sorry to be horniological and perhaps I have contributed this before but, the 'Hitler's birthday' one is famous amongst German horn players as, whoever plays the 4th horn solo in the slow movement does so beautifully but then moves a beat early in a following passage and causes chaos for a couple of bars. Legend has it that this is a player called Siegfried Shaffrath who was in the BPO for many years after so he obviously did not upset the regime too much. There is a serious point here; the human element has intruded into the performance (and let's face it, humanity was a bit lacking in the audience that night) which, however, is none the worse for it. I ask again - "have we lost something with modern recordings?" Beethoven in 1942 shone through and conquered the circumstances under which he was being performed. Fanciful or what?