1928 - Premiere of Schönberg's Variations for Orchestra
Wilhelm Furtwängler's repertoire consisted mainly, but not exclusively, of pieces of the classical and romantic aera. He also performed works from the 20th century and music by composers of his time, including Béla Bartók, Boris Blacher, Ferruccio Busoni, Paul Hindemith, Artur Honegger, Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky. Four works by Arnold Schoenberg (Pelleas and Melisande, Transfigured Night, Variations for Orchestra and the Five Pieces for Orchestra) and Alban Berg's Violin Concerto were also performed in Furtwängler concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in Berlin.
A special role played Arnold Schönberg's Variations for Orchestra op. 31, a key work of New Music and of the composer himself. Wilhelm Furtwängler premie-red the Variations with the Berlin Philharmonic 95 years ago, at the beginning of December 1928. The rehearsals were turbulent and the premiere ultimately turned into a fiasco. How this happened describes Volker Tarnow.
"Zeitschichten" (Time Layers) -
Chronology of the Magnetic Tape Age
The 2007 published 600-page book "Zeitschichten: Magnetbandtechnik als Kulturträger" - a chronological sequence from the first, precise sketches of ideas from the late 19th century to digital systems for sound and image recording after the turn of the millennium - became soon a standard work among experts, archives, as well as music enthusiasts and collectors of magnetic tape equipment. "Zeitschichten" was published when the era of magnetic tape storage was by and large over. Thus, a technology that dominated radio and television stations, film and record studios from 1950 to 2000 and was indispensable in scientific expeditions fell into disuse - the symbiosis of information carriers originating from chemical production lines with precision-engineered transport and drive systems. Hard disks, solid state disks (SSD) or USB sticks have taken over these tasks. In half a century, a considerable part of our cultural heritage has been stored on magnetic tapes. History and technical details should not be lost.
Thirteen years after the first publication of the book, the authors presented an expanded and revised fourth edition of "Zeitschichten" in 2020. In the process, little-known facts came to light - including the fact that Wilhelm Furtwängler became the first beneficiary of high-frequency premagnetisation (the first and altogether most successful method of dynamic expansion in tape technology). The 771 page book in DIN A4 format is now available for download. We thank Friedrich Engel and the Gesellschaft der Freunde der Geschichte des Funkwesens e.V. (GFGF, www.gfgf.org) for making the book available here as a pdf. Unfortunately, translation into English is excluded. The demands for a translator or better editor, last but not least the consultation and professional examination of the translated text by the authors, make such a project seem illusory.
"The complete Wilhelm Furtwängler on record"
Warner Classics released "Furtwängler's complete live and studio recordings" in a comprehensive edition on 55 CDs. "It is not only the first collection to bring together Furtwängler's entire catalogue of studio recordings, but also includes all the live recordings he made with a view to commercial release" (press text). Extensive research, involving experts from Furtwängler's societies in France, Germany and Japan, has opened up new sources and newly discovered material - for example, previously unpublished recordings made in Vienna and Copenhagen. Each recording has been completely and carefully remastered in high definition. The booklet offers two extensive contributions as well as a number of (in part hardly known) Furtwängler photos. Zwei ausführliche Besprechungen finden Sie hier:
MusicWeb International
Klangrede - für Klassikliebhaber
Fund-Stück #3
The music magazine "FonoForum" paid tribute to Wilhelm Furtwängler in several articles in issue 3/1999. The texts have lost none of their significance even 22 years later. We are pleased to be able to make them available to our members and thank REINER H. NITSCHKE Verlags-GmbH for permission to publish them FonoForum. They are only available in German.
New CDs from The Wilhelm Furtwängler Centre of Japan
Since 2004, The Wilhelm Furtwängler Centre of Japan ("WFCJ") has been engaged in making available all the 78rpm recordings made by Furtwängler on CD "Hiyama Collection", which was triggered by Mr. Kosuke Hiyama, one of the most distinguished Furtwängler scholars and Centre's advisor, who donated his 78rpm and vinyl collections to the Centre. The transfers have been made with the most advanced technologies and know-how that the Centre that we gained over the years.
The most recent titles are the 21st and 22nd collection in the series:
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WFFC2004-HYM contains the same performances as WFFC1403-HYM, Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 + Coriolan Overture. As the original 78rpms were at the time manufactured at wrong pitch of A=454~455, which was adjusted to A=443, the pitch we imagine to be correct at the time of recording in 1950.
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WFFC2005-HYM contains the same performances as in the WFFC1404-HYM, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 "Pathétique" + Serenade excerpts. For "Pathétique", the Centre transferred an excellent quality Australian issue. The serenade excerpts are from pristine quality 45RPM LPs.
WFG members who are interested in those issues should contact WFCJ info@furt-centre.com Attn. Mr. Masayuki Nakamura, President, directly for inquiry.
Found Pieces # 2
Alfred Brendel on Furtwängler
Alfred Brendel (born 1931) is not only an exceptional artist as a pianist, but also a writer of distinction. Brendel wrote in 1979 on the 25th anniversary of Wilhelm Furtwängler's death an essay, succinctly titled "Furtwängler". We are publishing this text, which first appeared in English, then in German, and thank the artist for allowing us to make this tribute to Furtwängler available to our members. You can find the text here for download.
Found Pieces # 1
To begin with, we publish a fundamental text by Roberto Menna Barreto: Wilhelm Furtwängler - Prophet in an Age of Dissolution.
Roberto Menna Barreto (1935 - 2015), lawyer, advertising expert, journalist, transactional analyst, was a great music lover and admirer of Wilhelm Furtwängler. At the time, he was the only Latin American member of the Wilhelm Furtwängler Society. Barreto dealt with musical issues in lectures, events and essays in his country Brazil. His essay on Furtwängler was written on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra 1982. It was printed and distributed in the form of a small brochure with the support of Deutsche Lufthansa in Brazil.
You can find the original Portuguese text (2.6 Mb) here for download.