Wilhelm FURTWÄNGLER conducts Beethoven - Symphony No. 8 LIVE (1953) 

The strange thing is I can hear elements of this performance right into von Karajan's 1984 recording of this work with the same orchestra (although presumably very few of the same personnel would have been present by then). It has quite a thick, heavy texture from the orchestra, but a lot of the balances and architecture of the work are the same under von Karajan. In fact, listening to this now, it's uncanny how similar the 2 recordings are. Karajan's performance is basically Furtwangler with better rhythmic accuracy. Von Karajan was said to be heavily influenced by Toscanini but people forget that although Von Karajan and Furtwangler hated each other, Von Karajan did actually borrow quite a lot from Furtwangler. And then there is orchestral memory.

We are talking about an accomplishment. If there's a reference performance & recording of the 8th Beethoven symphony, that's with Wil. Furtwängler.

Conducted as if it were Brahms.

It sounds as Brahms, but this is a complete different world! All with Furtwängler sounds like Brahms or Bruckner!! His Beethoven is overrated 👎🏻

So slow.......smh