Repertoire: The BEST Furtwängler Second Symphony 

I was in Chicago for that Barenboim performance when it was recorded. That was a rare and wonderful experience.

I am surprised and delighted by your review! WF worked on this symphony in Switzerland awaiting denazification. I have the Barenboim and play it every so often

Thanks Dave. I have both Furtwangler versions but haven't ever been much convinced by it even following the score a friend owned. But I will definitely give the Barenboim/CSO a try and see if it finally does the trick. It seems to be readily available. Update: I received and played the Barenboim/CSO. It makes a huge difference hearing it in such good sound. Still an odd symphony to me. Chunks of it sound Sibelian which is odd since he rarely conducted his works; much of the rest sounds like a Rachmaninoff symphony in search of a tune. But the sonic picture is impressive and it's a unique work for sure.

Jochum's is a memorial recording as Furtwangler died the previous month.......believe Nov. 30th.

Barenboim and the CSO, especially the ballsy brass section, get the HOWEVER from me here. They make this symphony into something it arguably isn’t: a very, very fine piece of music!

Shortly following your rant about the current conductor climate, the Concertgebouw Orchestra has appointed Klaus Mäkelä as its future chief conductor... God help us. Well, Haitink was underqualified too when he started. This may still turn out well.

The DG studio recording by Furtwangler is also in the Warner 55 CD box "Furtwangler: The Complete Studio Recordings" (studio recordings by EMI, Polydor, DG, Decca and Telefunken). Currently selling for $101 on amazon. The 35 CD DG box of DG and Decca recordings (both studio and live) is out-of-print and expensive.

It is interesting how many excellent, even great conductors wrote symphonies that are just dogs: the present Furtwangler, but also Kletzki, Dorati, Klemperer, Maazel, Mata, Walter, and I'll even dare to add Bernstein. The one conductor who wrote a symphony I actually like was Svetlanov.

I would love to see a video of you listening to the Furtwangler piano quintet in real time. I've never heard it, but can you imagine what it sounds like?

Nooo, I just played the 3rd Symphony in C# minor gorgeously miserable but I was in that mood! Cross between Bruckner and Pettersson? The Marco Polo CD😀

I honestly think -- and this is not a snarky comment -- that Furtwangler would have a better reputation in both conducting AND composing if his last name was not so harsh sounding to English speaking ears. First of all, any last name with an umlaut raises suspicions. The average English speaker is not sure if "wangler" should be pronounced with a "w" or "v" sound. Our greatest conductor of the 20th century sounds like an extra from the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Hey Dave, i wish you will make video about the Furtwängler chamber music. It is so fascinating. This music has a symphonic and individual style. There are two Violinsonatas and the Pianoquintett. Greetings from Germany Gregor

Your comments about Furtwangler being out the mainstream of his time are interesting. Looking back decades later, that factor doesn't shape our listening as much as it would have at the time. Gorecki's symphony No.3 is modern but harks but to a previous style and proved immensely popular. Boulez described it as "merde". Gorecki reciprocated in kind about Boulez's music. Boulez's music, though modern isn't popular. Interestingly, Barenboim has recorded Boulez. Maybe he found insights that have eluded most of us. Great music transcends it time. And so Furtwangler not being part of his contempories' style is no longer relevant.

I wonder, what you think of Sawallisch's live performance of Furtwängler's 3rd (Orfeo)? And now we are at it: Klemoerer's recording of his 2nd Symphony (EMI - of course now Warner) - and how it compares to Furtwängler's?

There is also a "live" recording of Furtwangler conducting the symphony in Frankfurt in 1952 i think. Have you heard that version?

Minor masterpiece! I really like Jochum's recording. It is actually quite impressive piece listening to it few times. By the way, I remember there was another recording by Takashi Asahina. How about that one?

I really root for the Furtwängler symphonies and his other works whenever I (rarely) listen to them, but to my ears even this one doesn't really succeed. Even when WF has a relatively interesting idea he seems defeated by it and doesn't know where to go with it -- at least not anywhere that I find interesting. I'm a bigger fan of WF as a conductor than you are, but a lesser fan of his as a composer.

I realize do you don't elevate Furtwnagler to the highest level of conductors. I think it would be worthwhile to include him and state his 10 best recordings. My first Tristan was his recording. I heard it when I was 18 and it still is my favorite. Near the end there is a crash in the orchestra - I think a stand fell and it was never removed from the recording. As always I enjoy these videos.

i have a request for you....best version of shostakovich symphonies no 5....i like this symphonies this is my better symphonies.......this symphonies depicted staline for me....if you make a videos on this subject before ...may be i miss....on the billions of videos you do it

did knappertsbusch wrote sonething? a pity if not

Did we ever get Shostakovich 2 & 3?

Bought this, years ago, and was supremely disappointed. Like Bruckner, but without the genius. I see, I am pretty much a minority of one, but that does not make me want to change my mind.

The last three weeks I reluctantly subjected myself to listening to Henry Fogel’s Collecter’s Corner series featuring Furtwangler Symphonies and other works. Ugh! The Man had nothing to say. He just imitated Bruckner and others, stitching together a lot of brass and whatnot to no purpose. Everything dies out before it reaches a climax, only to revert to more milling around with more imitations. I thought his Adagio in the 3rd started out great. But he interrupts it and throws in more brass and timpani stuff all of a sudden. He should never have tried to compose. He just had nothing to say. It’s all well composed. Brilliantly, in fact. But it goes nowhere. I don’t know about Ortheo. I really don’t care after what I (regretfully) forced myself to listen to.

Dave - this is an off topic observation. Have you noticed that so many of these classical album titles are just plain silly? You must have done. It getting to a point it's a game of spot the most stupid and/or pretentious album title.

I've tried listening to it a couple of times, but have never managed to get more than about half way through. It's not just that it's so anachronistic but I really have a problem with composers (& writers generally) who seem bizarrely untouched by the times through which they've lived. Frankly, nostalgia is a pretty lame response by someone hold up in Switzerland awaiting denazification...