Furtwangler’s Beethoven
Published:
COMPOSERS: Beethoven
LABELS: Music & Arts
WORKS: Symphony No. 1; Symphony No. 4; Egmont Overture
PERFORMER: Berlin PO, Vienna PO
CATALOGUE NO: CD-792 AAD
Wilhelm Furtwängler recorded the Franck Symphony, but his heart was more fully engaged in core German repertoire – and never more so than in Beethoven. Furtwängler ‘live’ is something of a spiritual encounter: his reading of Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony crouches in darkness only to leap for the sky as soon as Adagio bursts into Allegro vivace. This sort of spontaneous transition was Furtwängler’s hallmark, and yet the more restrained First Symphony fares equally well.