Opus Kura OPK 7018, 75:25 (Distrib. Albany) ****:
Wilhelm Furtwaengler’s 1944 Mozart Symphony in E-flat comes from RRG inscriptions (and Melodiya Black Label LPs) made in wartime Berlin; and while the musical values represent the conductor at the peak of his control and musical acumen, there is a degree of solemnity and (moral) resignation that has a palpable presence in Mozart’s darkly heroic figures. Furtwaengler (1886-1954) embodied both an aesthetic and an ethical culture in his approach to music, so it is hard to separate out the openly tragic elements of his reading from the world-strife that provides the context of the performance.
The Opus Kura edits and transfers are quite clean, the audience noise diminished, although there some sloughing off of the sound and some stringency in the string sections. After a ferociously driven Adagio–Allegro, the Andante con moto reaches with anguish for some spiritual consolation. The woodwinds generate their own, intensely Masonic sound world. Few bring the emotional aggression to the Minuetto that Furtwaengler explores, a dynamism both fiery and stately, the trio touched by melancholy. The Finale–Allegro has perhaps more Beethoven than Mozart hurling thunderbolts, the tympani and horns and swirling violins barely able to keep discipline. The dance tries to find a smile behind the tears and fury, but I am not sure that the passion does not in fact consume Mozart’s grand architecture.
The Brahms Concerto from 8-9 November 1942 features the regal Edwin Fischer (1886-1960) at the keyboard, a spirit kindred with Furtwaengler’s Romantic ethos. Sound quality is filtered, with the surface noise and shatter still intrusive. Commentators have remarked at the radiant quality of Fischer’s playing, the fervor of his sotto voce octaves and double notes. Lyrical and dramatic on an epic scale, the performance urges a humanity not necessarily present in the troubled times of its inception. Some gorgeous softly gossamer notes at the recapitulation of the first movement, the dialogue between piano and French horn, supported by plucked strings. Muffled sonics at the opening of the D Minor Allegro appassionato, but the virtuosic nervousness comes through. Something of Chopin in the application of Fischer’s touch in the meditative sections? The orchestral carillon shines luminously, nobly grand. The cellist shares the splendors of the Andante, its autumnal song for mankind. The nocturnal episode assumes a haunted stillness. Lovely duet for cello and piano to usher in the diaphanous coda. The last movement, Allegretto grazioso, attempts to infuse old-world charm in the midst of modern sensibilities. The slowing down of the tempo for the restatement proves nostalgically sentimental, and even Fischer’s finger slips do not detract from a moment of noblesse oblige in music.
— Gary Lemco
