Naxos: 8111003

Furtwängler - The Early Recordings Volume 2

Volume 2 of the Naxos edition of Wilhelm Furtwängler’s pre-1940s recordings begins with a weighty account of Beethoven’s Egmont Overture followed by a galvanizing performance of the Symphony No. 5, Furtwängler’s first recording of the work. This is presented complete for the first time: a few bars of music went unrecorded during the transition from the first to the second side of the third movement and are replaced here by the inclusion of the corresponding bars from Furtwängler’s 1937 remake with the same orchestra. In the Overture to Weber’s Der Freischütz, Furtwängler’s volatile and ‘free’ conducting is remarkably convincing.