Furtwangler Early Recordings Volume 3
Naxos
DONALD FLANDERS and Michael Swann had a splendidly sharp song, “Hi Fidelity’”, about those who are mad about the quality of recordings and put how it sounds sound above all musical considerations. “I can make Frank Sinatra sound like Hutch. Mind, I never did care for music much, but Hi Fidelity.”
These recordings by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra of music by Weber, Mendelssohn and Berlioz from the 1920s and ’30s will not appeal to devotees of pristine sound, but those interested in music and the history of performance will find them fascinating and rewarding.
Wilhelm Furtwangler, who died in 1954, was one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century. He brought the Berlin Orchestra to worldwide fame and glory. His reputation was severely handicapped by the fact that, controversially, he stayed in Germany during the Nazi period. However, if we are prepared to put that aside, we hear a great performing at work. Furtwangler was true German romantic at heart with a penchant for beauty of sound (Klangschonheit) and an idiosyncratic use of rubato and expressiveness.
Although he will always be associated with Wagner, Otto Klemperer considered he was by nature and inclination a concert conductor, rather than an opera conductor. Here he is shown as a master of orchestral musicianship.
No one of his performances was the same another; each was a new venture into musical experience. This charming selection opens with a 1935 recording of the most atmospheric, symphonic and haunted performance of Weber’s Der Freischutz Overture you are likely to hear – warm, heartfelt and deeply dramatic. While Furtwangler made a wonderful recording of Weber’s epoch-making opera, always close to his heart, in the last years of his life, this early recording of the overture shows all his love and attention to the characteristics of early German romanticism.
The orchestral detail and rhythmic vitality of Mendelssohn’s overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream made in 1929 is astonishing in its instrumental clarity. Fingal’s Cave, recorded in 1930, realises all the majesty and sweep of this often-played but always impressive score. Berlioz’s Hungarian March, which also dates from 1930, is full of colour. The clarity of the snare drum is impressive, as well as the famous bass drum part.
This disc also contains a selection of Mendelssohn’s incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a recording made in 1929 and conducted by Erich Kleiber, who died 1956, His reputation has been somewhat obscured by his famous son, Carlos Kleiber.
Erich Kleiber was a noted opera and orchestral conductor. These recordings reveal his mastery of rhythm and crisp detail. The Scherzo simply bustles and dances along, the Nocturne is sensuous and atmospheric, and the Wedding March brings this selection to a rousing and satisfying conclusion.
All told, this is beautiful and immortal souvenir of a golden age of music making. We shall not see their like again. But, thanks be, we can still hear them still – if we care to listen beneath the surface.
Robert Giddings
