Wilhelm Furtwängler conducts Schubert & Beethoven

Release Date: 11th Dec 2015
Catalogue No: DSD350085
Label: Praga
Series: Digitals

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Schubert: Symphony No. 9 in C major, D944 'The Great'

Philharmonia Orchestra
Wilhelm Furtwängler

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 'Choral': Ode to joy

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano), Elsa Calvetti (mezzo), Ernst Haefliger (tenor) & Otto Edelmann (bass)
Lucerne Festival Chorus, Philharmonia Orchestra
Wilhelm Furtwängler

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he last '9th' directed by Wilhelm Furtwängler who perhaps captured the orchestral quintessence of Beethoven's art. His 'Ode to Joy' from the hand of Schiller, the anthem of 20th and 21st century Europe, is all the more powerful considering he had only a few days to live. An alternative to the famous vision that he gave in 1951 at the reopening of the Bayreuth Festival. Recorded at Lucerne Festival, August 22 1954.

This Beethoven 9 by Fürtwangler showed, in the first movement, some technical weaknesses in the sound that Pierre Emil Barbier of Praga has now decided not to issue [as DSD350084]. However, this final version conducted by the maestro has a finale that surpasses almost everything, hence this new coupling with [a very fine] Schubert 9.

Wilhelm Furtwängler conducts Schubert & Beethoven

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