Wilhelm Furtwängler: The Radio Recordings 1939–1945 8 LP · 180g Vinyl · limited and numbered: 1886 copies worldwide

When he was elected chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker (then still the Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester) in 1922, Wilhelm Furtwängler impressed the musicians with his unique charisma. It was based on an intriguing interpretative principle: his baton technique avoided very precise gestures and deliberately relied on the blurring of tonal contours. This required that the orchestral musicians demonstrate a high degree of sensitivity and personal responsibility – something that developed impressively in the course of the years of intensive collaboration. The result is audible in the recordings of this edition: spontaneous and flexible music-making with a warm blended sound. Developments and intensifications never seem calculated, but grow organically out of themselves. For the remastering of the radio recordings, the best available material was used, in particular original tapes that were taken to the Soviet Union after the end of the war and only returned to Germany in the early 1990s. The recordings were carefully restored before vinyl mastering, digitally scanned using state-of-the-art technology and remastered in 24-bit resolution. The edition’s accompanying book contains numerous historical photos, articles about the making of the recordings and an in-depth essay by the American music researcher Richard Taruskin, who sheds light on Furtwängler’s artistic work. As a bonus, the box set includes a DVD with interviews with contemporary witnesses. To complement the present vinyl selection of radio recordings from 1939-1945, you can download these and all others from the period as studio-quality audio files with an enclosed download code. This edition presents a multifaceted overview of Furtwängler’s musical collaboration with the Berliner Philharmoniker and a unique document of the history of music interpretation.

show fewer details