...was born on 25 January 1886.
Here he is conducting the overture to Wagner's Die Meistersinger in Berlin in 1942, complete with banners.
Worth seeing, too, the Istvan Szabo film based on Ronald Harwood's play Taking Sides, a chilling tale of the victimisation of Furtwangler by a pig-ignorant deNazifying American official after the war (and btw includes a delectable few moments of Rini Shaham singing jazz).
Also would like to refer you to Tony Palmer's documentary The Salzburg Festival: A brief history (it's the better part of three hours long) in which the director interviews Mrs Furtwangler. She recounts that her husband stayed in Germany during the war because it was threatened that if he left, his entire orchestra would be disbanded, drafted and sent to certain death the Front.
Please fasten your seatbelts for an uncomfortable few minutes.
5 comments:
Naturally Mrs F. would try to find any excuse to whitewash her man. A fine musician but a weak human being who was all too glad to be left cock of the roost after all the great Jewish conductors had left and his great rival (and superior, in my view) was boycotting Europe.
Naturally Mrs F. would try to find any excuse to whitewash her man
And your proof that she's mistaken? [cue crickets]
his great rival (and superior, in my view) was boycotting Europe
Toscanini? The same man who joined the Fascist Party after WW1? The same man who buggered off to the safety of the RCA studios in New York and lobbed pot shots at those that stayed behind for various reasons instead of staying and fighting for his alleged ideals? That guy?
As for his alleged "superiority", what would that be in? Draining all the color out of a piece? Driving pieces relentlessly, so that they sounded like mechanical toys? Hacking Alfano's ending of Turandot to bits?
Had Toscanini not "buggered off" from Italy, he would certainly have come to a sticky end: you will remember that he had been physically assaulted by Fascist thugs for not playing their hymn at a concert.
If you like to think Toscanini "drained all colour" out of a piece and "drove all pieces relentlessly" then I'm sorry for you.
I am afraid if one is going to castigate Furtwangler for staying, then it must be the same verdict for Richard Strauss and, to a lesser extent, Franz Lehar. Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it? But I wonder, if the Nazi evil took hold in Germany today, what would any of us do in the same situation? Get out and come to London, or Hollywood or neutral Switzerland or Holland or any other place of refuge? Or would we stay and try to use our influence to help those that we could...and maybe save a few hundreds from the camps into the bargain? It's a very hard question, and not easily answered in a black & white fashion. The film clip was chilling - but was a wonderful reminder that somehow, music making carried on in the most wretched circumstances of human history. It also reminded me of Furtwangler's superb conducting style. What a star!
It is certainly extraordinary that the vast majority of Germans and Austrians put Hitler into power while knowing full well that Jewish people were being ostracized, murdered or forced into exile. Was it merely a question of following the herd? I stand by Toscanini, while having some sympathy for Furtwängler and rather less for the man who celebrated the Fall of Paris by conducting "Tristan" at the Opéra there before Hitler and his pals.
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