Conducts Bruckner
On this CD:
1. Symphony No. 9 in D Minor (Unfinished) (Löwe version; Carragan version), WAB 109
Composed by Anton Bruckner
Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Wilhelm Furtwangler
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
Furtwängler's connection with Bruckner's Ninth Symphony went back to the dawn of his career: in fact, it was the featured work on the program with which he made his symphonic conducting debut in 1907, at the age of 20. But only one of Furtwängler's performances of the Ninth was ever recorded, and this is it--a soulful reading with the Berlin Philharmonic from a concert given on October 7, 1944, in the dark final year of World War II. Furtwängler was always, in his interpretations of Bruckner at least, closer to the Apocalypse than the Elysian Fields, and that is certainly the case here. There is an urgency to the account that is palpable through all three of the symphony's movements. It's particularly apparent in the scherzo, which comes across with a ferocity that is not wildness but something far more chilling. The intensity of vision in Furtwängler's conception of the first movement is equally remarkable, as is the groping, almost glacial way he conducts the Adagio, probing the limits of sustainable sound. Apart from some ragged ensemble in the brass and occasional fits of poor intonation in the winds, the playing is on a very high level, and the sound, while veiled, conveys both the tonal beauty of the Philharmonic's realization and the charged atmosphere generated by the performance. --Ted Libbey
Conducts Bruckner, Music, Furtwangler, Bruckner, Berlin Philharmonic, Classical
Music Info:
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