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Wilhelm Furtwängler

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Wilhelm Furtwängler was born in Schöneberg near Berlin in 1886, the son of an archaeologist and a painter. He grew up in Munich and received music lessons from an early age. His love was for Beethoven. He saw himself first and foremost as a composer and began conducting in order to perform his own work. He made his debut with Bruckner's Ninth Symphony. After that he worked in, among other places, Munich, Strasbourg, Lübeck, Mannheim, Frankfurt and Vienna. In 1920 he succeeded Richard Strauss at the Berlin Staatskapelle, and in 1922 he became principal conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig and of the Berlin Philharmonic. He remained with the latter orchestra until 1945 and again from 1952 to 1954.

Music and breakthrough

Furtwängler is regarded as one of the greatest symphonic and opera conductors of the twentieth century. He also conducted a great deal with the Wiener Philharmoniker. His recordings are well known, including the Eroica and Beethoven's Ninth, Tristan und Isolde, Die Walküre and Schubert's Seventh. Many later conductors refer to his style of interpretation. His own compositions, including the Second Symphony, found less response.

Influence

During the Nazi regime he remained Germany's foremost conductor. He never became a member of the party, refused the Hitler salute and wrote an open letter against antisemitism in music in 1933. Even so, it remained a sensitive matter that his presence lent the regime prestige. In January 1945 he fled to Switzerland. After the war he conducted again, and he died in 1954 near Baden-Baden. Furtwängler stands for the heavy, Romantic German tradition in conducting, and for the question of how an artist conducts himself under a dictatorship.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to his 1952 recording of the Eroica and notice the changes of tempo and the tension in the slow march. Can you hear how freely he lets the tempo move within a single movement?

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists