Jul 29

Jul 29 The Complete Wilhelm Furtwängler on Record—Warner Classics

At the beginning of the pandemic, there were few options (if any) for live music concerts. The recordings in my collection grew exponentially. Even so, I felt I needed interaction with other music lovers. I was lucky enough to begin a weekly session of video calls with friends from around the country (I live in Mexico).

Together, this bonding experience and the dynamism of music as a glimpse of hope helped my mental health immensely. Only after these encounters was I able to truly reconnect with the music. I mention this because there was one artist specifically my friends and I discussed at length who helped us establish a sort of kinship through Beethoven, Wagner, Bruckner, and Brahms. His recordings, his life, and his critics were always in our meetings. That artist was conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler.

The following review is of the most recent (2021) Wilhelm Furtwängler compilation: Werner Classics The Complete Wilhelm Furtwängler on Record” (55 CDs), Amazon $159.99. The latest venture to have a complete Furtwängler set compiles 54 CDs and a CD documentary (Wilhelm Furtwängler A Memoir) with a total of six orchestras in these recordings: Berlin Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele, Philharmonia Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic.

If you are reading this review, you’ve spent time listening to the classics; probably Baroque, Classical to Romanticism are already in your record collection. The music manages to creep into your mind and soothe or live moments of particular solitude or motivate an engagement with the other. Having these already moving moments one can ask: what comes next to accentuate your musical experience through a more engaging performance? I’d say two things: sound quality (clarity, instrument separation, volume) and the conductor, the leader on the podium who enables the composer's work to shine, or to fall into some sonorous dim light.

The sound quality in the first half of the 20th century had many issues with clarity. In the early years of shellac and acoustic recordings, the sound was limited to the technology and equipment of the day. So today, the process of remastering old recordings for better sound clarity is of utmost importance, which is relevant to the Warner box-set. As for the conductor, the controversial and celebrated Wilhelm Furtwängler, one of the best-known conductors in the history of the Western canon, recorded many works, however, his complete discography is still a labyrinth. This box set sets out to find a way out of this maze.

Familiarizing oneself with Furtwängler recordings can be unnerving, from “lost recordings”, to “remastered albums” to “live concerts”—all these incomplete albums keep Furtwänglerites on their toes. Many efforts have been made to complete the entire Furtwängler directing oeuvre. Some of the most recent ones include Wilhelm Furtwängler: The Great EMI Recordings” (21 CDs, 2011). The Complete Recordings Deutsche Grammophon & Decca, (2019) for the 65th anniversary of his death, includes 34 CDs and a DVD of Don Giovanni from his 1954 Salzburg Festival (directing the Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, and London Philharmonic Orchestra). Another recent production is the Audite Complete RIAS (Radio in the American Sector) Recordings 1947-1954 Live recordings, with the Berlin Philharmonic (12 CDs, 2009). Not to mention the Japanese labels that have remastered his works on SACD (Tahra, OPK) just to name a few.

What’s in the box?

The box includes a 158-page booklet (in French, German and English) that describes the mastering process, a Furtwängler biographical timeline, and many photographs from his childhood to his mature years. The order of the albums is chronological, which for me was a good strategy, listening to the early years, the War-years and then the Post-War recordings I think might help explore differences in his early to mature work. You'll be listening to a wide range of composers in this box. I counted a total of twenty-six composers and over one hundred recordings. It includes recordings from 1926 until 1954, the year of his death.

The box features wonderful interpretations, like the two Beethoven Ninths (the live 1937 with the Berlin Philharmonic and 1951 with the Bayreuth Orchestra). It would have been perfect to have the 1954 one here (Philharmonia Orchestra), but it’s not. Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique from 1938 (Berlin Philharmonic). You also get Furtwängler’s Second Symphony (Berlin Philharmonic, from 1951), Frank’s Symphony in D minor (1953, Vienna Philharmonic), and a beautiful Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (1954, Vienna Philharmonic).

Some of my favourites include a magnificent Tristan with the Philharmonia, (Ludwig Suthaus, Kirsten Flagstad, and Fischer-Dieskau in 1952). A complete Fidelio (1953) with Martha Mödl and Wolfgang Windgassen. And of course, the classic Die Walküre from 1954, with Leonie Rysanek and Martha Mödl (the Vienna Philharmonic). Also included is an otherworldly Schumann Fourth (1953, Berlin Philharmonic). Other fun performances like Rossini’s Il Barbieri di Siviglia Overture (1935, Berlin Philharmonic). Brahms’ First (Vienna Philharmonic, 1947) and Second (London Philharmonic Orchestra, 1948) symphonies are lovely. Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, with Fischer-Dieskau and Kirsten Flagstad, with the Philharmonia (1952) is a treat for the senses for sure.

Organization and unpublished works.

Some interesting previously unreleased recordings are Franz Schubert's 8th, a live Danish Radio recording, two versions of Rosamunde Entracte No. 3. and a Strauss Kaiser Walzer, test recording. Tchaikovsky Serenade in C Major (Elegy) test recording, all from 1950 and the Vienna Philharmonic.

The title of this Warner box-set is a bit misleading for several reasons, for one, some of the most famous recordings are not in this box (only one movement from Bruckner and no Brahms or Beethoven cycles). Few if any live recordings from 1939-1945. Another issue has to do with the remastering work. Unabridged recordings like the new Beethoven Ninth (1951) from the BIS label released this year in SACD form, leave the entire recording as is, whereas, in this box-set, it is remastered. Another example is the 1926 Beethoven Fifth, where some of the bars of the third movement were omitted “To avoid a jarring listening experience, this gap has been filled using the 1937 version”.

The curators have been honest about the sources and treatments of the sources, vinyl pressings from “metal mothers” or even reproductions from original tapes were used for “A definitive edition and not a compilation of what’s been available for decades”. Almost all the recordings are newly remastered in 24-bit/192kHz from the original tapes by the Art & Son Studio, Mastering Audio (they also remastered the Maria Callas Live Recordings). I will say about the studio recordings, though a creature of the live concert, the studio Furtwängler is a must to start your journey with a master of the podium.

The towering Director

For all the criticism of the Berlin-born Furtwängler, all the books written about his life, and his defenders and detractors, justifying or criticizing his Nazi engagement, most can agree that he was an artist. His family was woven into the fabric of music (his grandfather on his mother’s side was a friend of Brahms) and composing by the age of seven, his first composition was named “A little piece about animals”. By age ten, he was already composing sonatas for piano and violin, a string quartet, and a trio for piano, cello, and violin.

We know that composing was his first love and conducting was a path. Furtwängler knew getting his works played was difficult, so he decided on the podium. In 1907 he conducted his first full program in Munich with the Kaim Orchestra, with none other than Bruckner’s Ninth. Furtwängler was always a driven individual, since the race to fill Arthur Nikisch's seat at the Berlin Philharmonic in 1922, he was adamant about what he wanted from his career. By 1928 Furtwängler was Chief Conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus and was very busy, having conducted 127 concerts just in the 1928-29 season alone.

The following years revealed that silence has a cost, and because of it he would forever be remembered for his entanglement and relation to Nazi propaganda. The link of nationalism to the German repertoire (in which he shined), made his connection to the Nazi Party inevitable. In the Post-War years, he went back to work and record, however, his legacy was tarnished. The amount of influence however on the following wave of legendary conductors is clear. Just recently Daniel Barenboim commented: “Wilhelm Furtwängler was always a stranger in this world. He was someone who went his way and stood apart from the others: he could not be pigeonholed in any one category, no matter how broad. Furtwängler is the ultimate embodiment of the musician who refuses to adapt to preexisting moulds, the anti-ideologue par excellence”

Audio Setup and sound comparison

My listening setup: PS Audio Stellar Strata integrated amplifier via the Allnic Audio Power Cable ZL-3000. PS Audio PerfectWave SACD Transport with Allnic Audio Power Cable ZL-5000, connected to the Alta Audio Alyssa Speakers and Allnic Audio ZL -5000 speaker cables. I also used a few high-end headphones (Hifiman Arya, Focal Clear, and the Grado GS1000e) to listen as closely as possible when I compared my Furtwängler collection to the remastered CDs. I used my Mark Levinson No. 5105 and a Pro-Ject Debut-Carbon for the 78 shellacs for the LPs.

I was lucky enough to get a set of mint Furtwängler-Polydor Wagner 78 rpm recording excerpts of Siegfried’s Funeral March and Lohengrin with the Berlin Philharmonic. After thoroughly cleaning them, I compared them to this newly remastered edition there’s no contest, this remastered edition is just marvellous. I did the same with other LPs versus this box-set, here the CDs gave the 33 1/3 albums a run for their money. I listened to all the Wagner (The Ring, especially), Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, and his Mahler Lieder obviously (I still can’t believe he didn’t record more Mahler, even though he played his symphonies in the late 1910s and early 1920s) in my collection and found the remastering of the set fantastic. Especially the upper and lower frequencies, a more stable dynamic sound came from the CDs.

What I’ve noticed since I first listened to my very first Furtwängler (Brahms Third, with the Berlin Philharmonic) is that even with the poor quality of many of his recordings (poor cutting and editing of the tapes, the hissing, the crackle, and pop, low volume), these imperfections did not interfere with my experience of Furtwängler’s interpretations. But now, with this remastered edition of almost all of the box-set in 192kHZ/24bit, it’s a whole new kind of immersion. I’d suggest going straight to the ones you love, then little by little get to know other gems. I went straight for the previously unissued Schubert “Unfinished” live performance as well as the early recordings from Polydor.

Conclusion

I can complain about this compilation, of course; I mean only one movement from Bruckner?! There’s something to be said about this box that separates it from other compilations that might have better recordings (I can think of the Deutsche Grammophon box-set with mainly live concerts which are fantastic), but don’t let this stir you away from this box. For me, sound quality is a must, and the remastering process in this box set delivers. It’s a very fine set for anyone who desires sound quality in parallel with a master conductor.

Release Date: 24th Sep 2021