Furtwangler Beethoven 9 Coda Comparison (ALL VERSIONS)

Some people say that Furtwängler's mastery of Beethoven's 9th ends with his speed through the final prestissimo. I on the other hand feel that it is one of the strongest points of his interpretation. For those who do not like it, I include here every single recorded version of the coda by Furtwangler in hopes that they might find one particular performance that pleases them. I realize this is perhaps much too much to expect, but it could be worth it. The worst examples are the ones where the sound is distorted and one cannot hear the notes- the best example probably being the well recorded Lucerne concert.
One interesting thing to note is that Furtwangler was a lot more experimental in the codas of Beethoven's other symphonies. In Symphonies 5 and 7 for instance he did always accelerate through to the end but the actual BPM themselves would change drastically in different years. However in the 9th, the manic tempo with very high BPM is CONSISTENTLY upheld from 1937 (I believe a very high pitch/speed distorts the true tempo for that one making it sound faster than all the others) to 1954 with very subtle differences in the overall impression. What does this show us? Whatever Furtwangler's thoughts on Beethoven and experimenting from performance to performance, his convictions remained firm in this interpretative aspect.

I include a Toscanini version (which I actually like, for Toscanini) for sake of comparison as well. It makes a good representation of modern period influenced performance practices.

Also please by all means do not use this video to judge each performance by their coda.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• wilhelm
• furtwangler
• beethoven
• 9th
• symphony
• coda
• comparison
• prestissimo
• toscanini