With the first international release of a 34-CD Furtwängler box set by Deutsche Grammophon, many are interested in the sound quality of CDs in this new set compared to previous releases.
When comparisons are to be made, we should at least know what are available for this purpose. With this in mind, I have compiled a list to share with you what CDs have been released by DG both internationally and locally in Europe or Japan. As my knowledge is limited, I don’t pretend this list to be complete, and any information on what I have missed out will be much appreciated.
I’ll post pictures of the CDs that I own in this list later when I have time.
In mathematics, to prove a theorem false, often all you need
to do is to provide a counterexample. To play devil’s advocate, you can apply the
same logic to the recent surge of “Complete Editions” of musicians in classical
music.
How about the coming WILHELM
FURTWÄNGLER: Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon & Decca?
Does this edition include all of what DG or Decca has
released on Wilhelm Furtwängler? Oh, I can almost see your devilish smile.
Life of course is not so simple. The answer is not a simple yes or no.
Two CDs in the Vienna Philharmonic 150th Anniversary Edition issued by Deutsche Grammophon in 1991, as shown in the following picture, have contents not included in the coming “Complete” Edition.
For the DG 435324-2, the 1944 Beethoven Leonore III and the 1945 Brahms Symphony No. 2 are included in the coming set on CD15. However the 1954 Beethoven Grosse Fuge is not included. The Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in May 1953 on DG 435325-2 is also not included in the coming “Complete” Edition.
The fact that these 2 recordings are not included may just be due to copyright reasons as they are part of the Archiv der Wiener Philharmoniker. Whatever the reason for their non-inclusion, it is a pity that these 2 very admirable recordings are not included in the coming “Complete” Edition.
Anyway, I’m perfectly happy with a glass half full rather than moaning a glass half empty.
The “WILHELM FURTWÄNGLER Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon & Decca” 35-disc edition will also be available via streaming and download platforms.
The digital download or streaming format will be available in 7 volumes. At present 4 out of these 7 volumes have already been released.
Many Furtwängler fans must have already got a large part, if not all, of the releases in this Edition, and some of you may not want too many repetitions in their collection. The digital download format may be a good choice to fill the gaps in your collection, which would otherwise not be available in CD format because the CDs in this Edition are apparently not available in separate smaller sets, at least in the near future.
The table below shows the CD numbers in the box set which correspond to the digital volumes, and hopefully it will help some to make their choices.
I guess most will be satisfied with streaming alone for the bonus disc, i.e. CD34, in the box set, which is available in Spotify. This perhaps applies to the Early Polydor Recordings as well. The Wartime Recordings, Post-war Radio Recordings and DGG Recordings have been released by DG previously and are quite easily available even now. Perhaps the most coveted part is the Decca Recordings which have not been widely available in CD format, thus a digital download of Volume 7 may be an economical method to complete one’s collection.
What will be missing in the digital downloads or streaming is the pretty booklet in the box set with rediscovered photos, contact prints, previously unpublished drawings and essays by Rob Cowan and Norman Lebrecht, although some of the photos will be available for viewing on social media.
2019 is the 65th anniversary of Wilhelm Furtwängler’s death, and Deutsche Grammophon is to mark it with the release of a new 35-disc edition: Wilhelm Furtwängler – Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon and Decca. As we all know, this set comprises 34 CDs and a DVD.
When the release date of 27 September is getting nearer,
more information on this edition emerges. Here are some points:
All recordings in the set will also be available via streaming and download
platforms.
Notes within the set are written by Rob Cowan
and Norman Lebrecht (!)
There will be an accompanying video blog series
with interviews contributed by Norman Lebrecht.
Lebrecht provides an assessment of Furtwängler’s
world view, and concludes with: “There is nothing morally admirable about
Furtwängler the man…… The music is another matter.”
Rediscovered photos, contact prints and
previously unpublished drawings of Furtwängler will be revealed in this edition
and on social media.
There is no mention of any new remastering yet,
but the set does include “a number of rare Japanese remasterings, previously
inaccessible outside Japan”.
Rob Cowan’s article on Furtwängler, Man and Myth, published in Gramophone in February 2005 can be viewed here.
The coming 34-CD+1-DVD “Wilhelm Furtwängler – Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon and Decca” box set is apparently modelled on the Japanese Das Vermächtnis von Wilhelm Furtwängler 34-CD box set released back in 1994.
The 1994 Japanese box set
The new box set
The content is very similar, except that the new box set includes a Don Giovanni DVD, which is still available separately, and now with more information of the contents available, we can have a better understanding of how the new set compares with the earlier one.
The order of the recordings in both sets is very similar, because it is mostly chronological. The chronological order as stated by DG refers only to the grouping of recordings in the sequence of pre-war, wartime and post-war periods, and not to the chronological sequence of the recordings within each time period.
Given that the wartime recordings have been reissued in 2 small Collectors Edition box sets (471 2892-2 and 471 294-2) in 2001 after the initial ground-breaking 10-CD box set (427 773-2) released in 1989, and the DGG Recordings in the DG Originals series, it remains to be seen if there is any new remastering in this large box set.
After Berliner Philharmoniker released a large box set of Furtwängler’s
war-time recordings, and King International reissued Tahra’s releases in small
boxes, Deutsche Grammophon would jump on the bandwagon and release a “Complete”
box-set of his recordings.
“Wilhelm Furtwängler – Complete
Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon and Decca”
33CDs + 1 bonus CD + 1 bonus DVD
CD1-CD3: Pre-war Recordings
CD4-CD16: War-time Recordings
CD17-CD23: The Radio Recordings I
CD24-CD26: The DGG Recordings
CD27-CD30: The Radio Recordings II
CD31-CD33: The Decca Recordings
Bonus CD34: Beethoven Sym No. 5; Wilhelm Furtwängler speaks
about music
Bonus DVD: Mozart: Don Giovanni
With a 76-page booklet (English and German) with the essays
“The Fall and Rise of Wilhelm Furtwänger”, “A Childlike
Dionysus” and rare and rediscovered photographic material.
To celebrate the “Gustav Klimt: Vienna – Japan 1900” exhibition in the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum from 23 April to 10 July and then in the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art from 23 July to 14 October 2019, Warner Music Japan will issue a local release of Furtwängler’s 1951 Bayreuth Beethoven Ninth recording – again! This recording is said to be used as the background music during the exhibition.
What is so special about this reissue? The following are
claims of its special points which to many are considered gimmicks at best:
The CD jacket and booklet will use Klimt’s famous Beethoven Frieze painting
2019 new DSD11.2Mhz remastering from the original master tape at Abbey Road Studio
Mastering for UHQCD by Kazuie Sugimoto (杉本一家) at JVC
Let’s hear how the CD sounds when it is released on 24 April.
When Dreamlife released the CD set RIPD003 back in February 2009, it caused much discussion because it was claimed to be a Beethoven 9 recording by Furtwängler on 30 May 1953. It sounds totally different from the recording previously issued by other companies dated 31 May 1953. Thus started heated discussions as to the authenticity of this recording and also the exact dates of the extant releases.
This controversial recording will be reissued in Japan in the
format of UHQCD by a new Japanese label called Epitagraph. In Japan this recording
has been widely acclaimed as the “ultimate” Beethoven Ninth by Furtwängler in
his last years, not least by the Wilhelm Furtwängler Society Japan (日本フルトヴェングラー協会).
The original 2009 Dreamlife release is a neat box set containing a replica of programme notes. It will be a good chance for those who missed out on the Dreamlife CDs to get this particular release, hopefully in good sound as well.
For this video recording of Furtwängler conducting Mozart’s Don Giovanni, produced by Paul Czinner, it has been reported that the sound track was recorded in sessions after the 1954 Salzburg Festival performances, and the visual part was done in October that year. Only the overture in which we see Furtwängler conducting was thought to be “authentic” for the occasion stated.
Placing the current DVD alongside the 1956 pamphlet about this video made in Eastman colour makes one nostalgic. We should be grateful for the existence of such an Opern-Film made before Furtwängler died shortly afterwards.
