Beethoven was Wilhelm Furtwängler’s guiding musical force. In his interpretations of the symphonies, the conductor generates irresistible dramatic momentum – and a constant sense of imaginative freshness – through the interrelationship of form, harmony, texture, rhythm and tempo.
These recordings, all made in the late 1940s and early 1950s, in the Musikverein in Vienna and at concerts in London, Bayreuth and Stockholm, have been remastered in 192kHz/24-bit at Art & Son Studio (in 2021 for the 7 recordings included in The Complete Wilhelm Furtwängler on Records and newly for this edition for the 3 other ones), bringing their sound more alive than ever before and for the first time here on a physical medium.
As a bonus the 5th Symphony live performance from 1950 in Copenhagen restored in HD from an excellent condition analogue source has been added.
Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1-9
Wiener Philharmoniker
Wilhelm Furtwängler
–Symphony No. 8 w/Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
–Symphony No. 9 w/Chor und Orchester der Festspiele Bayreuth
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67
1950 live recording
Wiener Philharmoniker
Wilhelm Furtwängler