While most people will
prefer Furtwangler's live concerts recordings to his
studio ones, one cannot deny the fact that these final studio recordings of
Beethoven symphonies were well-played and well-recorded. They may lack the
urgency and angst of his wartime renditions, but they exude considerable charm on
their own. EMI’s plan to have a full
Beethoven symphonies cycle was foiled when Furtwängler died in 1954, and
Symphony Nos. 2, 8 and 9 were yet to be recorded. Fate has it that the first
EMI post-war Beethoven symphonies set went to Karajan and the Philharmonia
instead, issued in 1956.
It was not until 1979 that EMI Electrola
issued the first complete set of the Beethoven symphonies conducted by
Furtwängler.
The fate of each of the three missing
symphonies by the time Furtwängler died in 1954 differs. For the Ninth, EMI
turned to the July 1951 concerts during the reopening of the Bayreuth Festival after the
war, and the famous set of 2 LPs, HMV ALP 1286-7, now asking almost ridiculous
prices in the second-hand market, was issued in November 1955. For the Eighth, it
was originally thought that no broadcast recordings survived (the same with the
Second), yet in 1972 the Wilhelm Furtwängler Society together with Unicorn issued
a recently discovered 1948 Stockholm Philharmonic broadcast on LP, WFS 5, and
in the same year, German EMI Electrola issued the same performance on 1C
053-93533. The French EMI Pathé might have thought a broadcast recording of the
Second would never be found when in 1977 it issued a Beethoven set of 8
symphonies, 2 overtures, the Violin Concerto and 2 Romances with Menuhin, the
Piano Concerto No. 5 with Fischer, and a Fidelio in a nice 13-LP set. The world
had to wait for another 2 years before the final missing piece of the puzzle
was discovered, a 1948 Vienna Philharmonic broadcast of Symphony No. 2. Thus
1979 saw the first complete Furtwängler Beethoven symphonies set on LP issued
on EMI Electrola.
Furtwängler’s complete Beethoven symphonies
CD sets have been widely documented, but strangely, their counterparts on LP were
often only covered in a piecemeal manner.
The following is a brief introduction of 4 “complete” sets issued
between 1977 and 1986. It does not pretend to be exhaustive as I don’t have the
Japanese set issued in 1983, Toshiba EAC 47240-6, at the moment.
1977 EMI Pathé 2C 153 52540-52 (13 LPs)
Pros: Includes 8 Symphonies, 2 Overtures, the Violin Concerto and 2 Romances with Menuhin, the
Piano Concerto No. 5 with Fischer, and a Fidelio. Nice packaging. Nice booklet with
essays by Rémi Jacobs. Attractive, warm sound.
Cons: Lacks Symphony No. 2 (yet to be
discovered at that time).The Eroica’s Scherzo was severed and placed onto 2
sides. Essay in French only.
1979 EMI Electrola 1C 149 53432-9M (8 LPs)
Pros: The first complete set of all 9
symphonies. Includes 4 Overtures. No split within movements. Essay by Karl
Schumann in German and English.
Cons: Symphony No. 2 is split on 2 records.
1979 EMI Italiana 3C 153 53600/06M (7 LPs)
Pros: Each symphony on one record. Essay by
Paolo Isolta in both Italian and English. Box looks grand.
Cons: The Funeral March of the Eroica is split
into 2 parts and put onto 2 sides. Includes only one Overture, the Coriolan.
1986 EMI Electrola 137 2906603 (6 LPs)
Digital remastering: No 9 in 1984; Nos.
5&6 in 1985; the rest in 1986. DMM technology.
Pros: Very nice essay by Hans-Hubert
Schönzeler in German and English (with translations into French and Italian
too). No splits within movements. Easier to get used copies, and relatively
inexpensive.
Cons: Narrower grooves may compromise sound
(9 Symphonies and 4 Overtures cramped in only 6 LPs), and in fact they do. Odd and sometimes inconvenient
grouping of symphonies and movements, e.g. Symphony No. 9 is split onto 3
records.
Listening to these vinyls is a valuable experience.
