Wagner - Lohengrin Prelude - Wilhelm Furtwängler, 1936

[Tphillips025]

True music

[Lirico96]

GOD

[Sophiestelle]

Magnificent!, Wonderful, Beautiful!

Thank you for share your art, Wilhelm!

[francescaemc2]

Grazie grazie grazie per aver messo questo su yt!!!!!

[MARCTULATAI]

AS I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE KNOWN RICHARD WAGNER ... AN ARTIST LIKE HIM THE HUMANITY NOT WILL SEE AGAIN.

[sauronsdaugther]

I guess this can be found on CD, but I would be grateful if you could tell me the name of the CD. Is it a compilation or the full opera?

Thanks for sharing it :-)

[ChronicleNIGHTMARE]

Wagner, i love you.

[andreinamarquina]

que belloo...

[NoahWyleFan]

@antoBN he brought me here too! :)

[antoBN]

Hugh Harris brought me here.

[MidnightIsolde]

This music is truly exceptional and Furtwangler brings out such passion, power and buety in the notes - the power of this recording is incredable... I only wish my fellow teenagers at my school could appreciate it.

[Controcultura]

Tra le varie esecuzioni del Preludio che ho ascoltato questa mi sembra la più ispirata, e considerando sia il Direttore che l'anno dell'esecuzione non poteva che essere così.

[MidnightIsolde]

@SatchmoSings

But I am from Great Britain, so how can it be insulting to me personally? I just feel you were being unjust. Yes Germany is only 140 years old but german history is much older.

Anyway, I can see from your other posts that you like Wagner, so why be so discurtious when we both enjoy Wagner's music and Furtwangler as a conductor? It was unnessersary,when I was only defending germany because I love its culture such as this music.

[Strausssohn]

What a mystery ...

[Gooseberry51]

A technical question: how did they record this long works in the 30th? If someone has a lead to this information, I would be very grateful. As fas as I know full recording of Wagner Opera's exists for the early 30th.. Used to have an excerpt of Lohengrin (6 records 78 cycles ) from 1929.. so.. any information available?

[TheDuderino77]

@Gooseberry51 It's not a recording from 1936 in Bayreuth. I posses all the surviving documents from those concerts, a prelude is nowhere involved. Here we listen to a recording from 1947, the first season Furtwängler was allowed to conduct again. He conducts the Festival Orchestra of Lucerne. There are only two other (studio) recordings of Furtwängler of this piece. (1930 with the BPO & 1954 with VPO). This one here is my favorite version! It is on a Testament release. I hope I could help you

[SatchmoSings]

@TheDuderino77 I didn't know that Furtwangler had such a suspension put upon him; I'm certainly familiar with the one that Mengelberg got hit with and I find that a disgrace and I say that clearly and unequivocally as someone that lost family members in concentration and death camps.

I'm also aware that Furtwangler had been considered for the CSO here in The United States and while I do admire Kubelik (who did get the post) that Furtwangler was dropped as he was was pretty terrible

+

[SatchmoSings]

@Gooseberry51 It's pretty simple, genius.

They would record it in 3 to five minute chunks and then at the end of this, you'd have to change the disk.

Thanks to the then-magic of magnetic tape and now-digital recording, you can easily edit the pieces together so it plays straight through.

Look at THIS:

watch?v=q6PvESQerLA

[MidnightIsolde]

@SatchmoSings

To continue, just because the country as it is presently today only began 140 years ago does not mean that the history of the german people, germans kingdoms and the first Reich (the Holy Roman Empire) suddenly don't exist.

[MidnightIsolde]

@SatchmoSings

It is wrong to say that the history of Germany is only 140 years old because that is only counting from the unification of German states(kingdoms, Principalities etc). But german states existing as an entity long before that together under the Holy Roman Empire - which was led by the Habsburgs of the Austrian empire for a long time until 1806 when the Holy Roman Empire dissolved.

So I think it is quite insulting towards the Germans to disregard their history before unification.

[SatchmoSings]

@MidnightIsolde I don't think it insulting at all to say what I did; YOU'RE the one that feels insulted and you should have just admitted that.

I've met a number of people from Great Britain and none of them get insulted when it should come up that there was no Great Britain until 1707 and indeed, quite a few of them want to end this union.

You're wearing something on your sleeve and it frankly smells quite badly as does the rest of you; have a nice day!

[bekiof]

schön.

[LeRinkRat]

too bad they didn't have digital recording in Furtwängler's day. he is most likely THE great conductor of the mid 20th century BUT I think that Sir George Solti or James Levine would give him a race for best "Wagnerian" conductor overall.

[paulostroff99]

@LeRinkRat -Yes,they were both right up there not far behind,but still behind him.They were brilliant,but he was god like.

[ptrichmondmike]

Wow...that is INCANDESCENT Wagner! What a treasure, and thank you for posting. Furtwangler surely is one of the three or four greatest conductors ever.

[albebarros]

Bad years to play Wagner in Germany... Anyway, the genious goes beyond the poltics no matter how terrible the latter can be.

[TheBiggestWolf]

@albebarros

Wagner embodies the spirit of the German people. You can't separate it from the politics, religion, culture, their history. You have to accept ALL, and apreciatte it. People like you who butcher things like that based on what they consider moral really upset me.

[furti1922]

@TheBiggestWolf

No, i do not agree... who could embodie the spirit of nearly 80 Mio. people. But, i am proud having such great composers as Bach, Haydn, Händel,Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann,Wagner, Brahms, Mahler etc. belonging to german culture. Just only Italia is to compare with, if you will. All the other you said, i agree. Just give a grin to all these hypocritics, reminding to Nazis ... idiots. Germany has a long history 1.200 years...

[TheBiggestWolf]

@furti1922

Absolutely! They have a fascinating history, and they are a strong people. Rebelling against the more powerful, better equipped, better supplied Roman empire is awe-inspiring.

[SatchmoSings]

@furti1922 A lot of the composers you listed were born in German states but lived out their creative lives in Austria.

Germany does NOT have a 1200 year history; German history is officially 140 years old; the United States is older.

And Furtwangler was great; even Toscanini had to admit it.

[paulostroff99]

@SatchmoSings -Toscanini grudgingly called Furtwangler thebest after himself.To me WF was the best Wagner and Beethoven conducter of them all.

[SatchmoSings]

@paulostroff99 I'm generally reluctant to call someone "the best" in this field, however if anyone could be called such a thing, it is certainly Furtwangler.

[SatchmoSings]

@TheBiggestWolf Interestingly, the "Brahms-Wagner" divide also spills over into politics with Wagner being the one famous for his anti-Semitism and all its attendant values which culminated with Nazi Germany, while Brahms is representative of true Republicanism and even a bit of philo-Semitism so your point is obviously well-taken but just not in the way you intended.

Wagner also cheated merchants; Brahms paid his bills.

Love the "Why We Need A New [World] Order" on your home page, NOT!!!

[TheBiggestWolf]

@SatchmoSings

Thanks for taking the time to use proper grammar and sentence structure. Next time add a "yo" at the end of 'home page' and a "home boy" after the obnoxious 'NOT' with three exclamation marks.

Ave

[Mitschi77]

Das ist ja wohl die geilste Interpretation, die ich je gehört habe. Gänsehaut pur!!! Reinste Meditation!

[Mitschi77]

Das ist ja wohl die geilste Interpretation, die ich je gehört habe. Gänsehaut pur!!!

[irenecabrejos33]

Who will lead as Furtwangler? The music, in his hands, poured their essence upside down, rightward, onwards... Today I focused not only on the tremolo of the start, but on how he conducts the music slowly to its highest crescendo and on the inconceivable final, where music is dissolved as the last atom of light ...

[SatchmoSings]

@irenecabrejos33 Furtwangler was great; no question about it but he had tons of contemporaries that were on his plane; Toscanini, Mengelberg, Koussevitzky, Weingartner, Stokowski, Stock and Beecham to name a few.

[dieselheart001]

Vote thumbs up if "Furtwangler" makes you think "Fart Wrangler" or "Fart Knocker"!

[FliegendeHollaender]

@dieselheart001

I'm overwhelmed by people that stupid.

[dieselheart001]

@FliegendeHollaender It's nothing short of sadly hilarious, isn't it? It's either pathetically tongue-in-cheek or

joyously fustian... Names are funny. Instead of "Furtwangler", it could have been "Fokker" or possibly the almost chokingly laughable "Knippelmier", or the cloying "Schickelgruber". Such silliness makes being of Teutonic descent an absolute delight... we are a truly ferocious species... and absolute masters of the art of zymurgy, the fount of Valhalla!! May we remain mighty!!

[SatchmoSings]

@dieselheart001 Bedřich Smetana, composer of "Ma Vlast" is also referred to as Bedřich Smegma.

[9samten]

Never heard it performed and conducted so passionately, so deeply. Just a breathtaking performance. A jewell.

[Tatomatic]

How lucky are we to live in an age when such magnificent beauty can be enjoyed so many years later? Furtwängler is hands down the best, ever. Transcendent is the word that comes to my mind, these recordings are musical gems, nothing less.

[Klaasklinkert]

By far the best performance of this very delicate piece of music I have heard so far! This is Wagner, this is Romanticism, this is Furtwängler!

[BOBBYFSCHR]

Indeed a very beautiful performance, but a little too fast and sometimes too moved, too expressive. It should be a bit more subdued.

This music is symbolic of angels descending from heaven with the Holy Grail. You will have to hear the performance of Karajan. Tempo slightly slower, performance more modest and more united, but with much tension and tenderness.

The Berliner are very lucky they had the two greatest conductors of the last century as their leader.

[portoxali]

Completely agree with previous remarks, this interpretation is truly unique with its sense of pathetic grandeur on the one hand and noble simplicity on the other, ..just amazing, bravo maestro!

[lewars1912]

Sublime Wagner. Sublime Wurtwangler.

[Swetrade]

Greatest music interpreter in history.

[bodiloto]

sublime

[krischan67]

That's incredibly wonderful.

I thought I've posted something like that in here before...

[TheBiggestWolf]

Beautiful... my god...

Ave Luminati

[SigfriedNothung]

@TheBiggestWolf Not Luminati but "Illuminati "

[Tudobembrasil]

Tears in my eyes...what beauty in complexity. Furtwangler is able to show the unique greatness of Wagner.

[LAFOURFAN]

Absolutely beautiful!

[zuckerkrank]

오 놀라워라..푸르트벵글러의 신공은 참으로 신묘막측하도다..

[Rattywotin]

This is a revelation to me, I have loved Wagner all my life but have never heard him conducted like this, bravo Wilhelm. what passion!!

[inter215]

The most majestic and spiritually elevated version of this work I've heard. This is the way it was meant to sound. The sense of continuity - elasticity and ecstasy are all here. The key - he never allows the pace to slow to the point where it swamps the spiritual power of the piece.

[billyguns2]

A spiritual experience. For me, Furtwangler operated on a plane unreached and undreamed of by any other conductor, and there are many other great conductors: Klemperer comes close, but my statement stands.

[Fmbunyard]

Just a remarkable recording. Furtwangler has the sense of unfolding power and apotheosis needed to bring Wagner to life. The tempo is perfect, This piece is usually timed at a snail's pace, Furtwangler quickens the tempo just enough to keep the Prelude suspenseful but still shimmering. The best interpretation I've heard.

[lilleeWAfot]

Fantastic playing!Maybe the playing was as good at the time of the first performance of Lohengrin.We'll just never know!

Orchestras don't seem to know or have this affinity with Wagner today.

[LeRinkRat]

@lilleeWAfot "Orchestras don't seem to know or have this affinity with Wagner today." have you heard the Met Opera Orchestra with James Levine? they would give Berlin or Bayreuth a run. in fact Levine conducted Bayreuth 1982 thru 1991 ex for 1987.

[petrof4056]

awesome