Furtwangler's 2nd

[Wunderhorn]

Though Furtwangler is more a champion of Bruckner and R. Strauss, he still surely must have been influenced by Mahler. I bought the Barenboim Chicago of Furtwangler's 2nd and have found the opening to the first movement quite beautiful. It seems to suffer from somethings though. As does the third movement after its brilliant opening. It is surely his masterpiece (the 2nd), are so the scholars say. Has anyone heard this work. He seems quite inventive, but his orchestration reminds me of Schumann, which is strange given the fact he was a conductor. Perhaps what Furtwangler suffered from was 'too many ideas with little development of any of them', same as R. Strauss sometimes.

[Leo K]

Thats interesting...have you heard Klemperer's Symphonies?  He's another great conducter who has unperformed music.  I've never heard Furtwangler's or Klemperer's work...but I aim to listen one of this days.

I am eager to hear what others may think of these works (of Furtwangler or Klemperer)...good or bad?  Or middle of the road talent in composition?

[barry guerrero]

I once heard a very short work by Klemperer that was really good. I don't remember the name of it. But again, it was quite short. Antal Dorati also composed symphonies. Markevitch, Martinon (I think), and Paul Paray (Detroit) were composers as well.

[michaelw]

I bought the Furtwängler second symphony after release of Barenboim's recording with the CSO. I like to hear it from time to time
and it is not bad. As Wunderhorn says, the first and the third movement have nice openings, the themes are used nicely, but - as also DH states in his 10/10 review - it has a few lengths.
In my opinion, if it was composed by the "composer Furtwängler" instead of by the famous "conductor Furtwängler", it possibly would be performed more often.
Generally it seems easier to transform from composer to conductor than vive versa. For Klemperer I found a CPO-bargain at my JPC-store just today with Klemperer's symphonies 1&2. I was undecided, finally left it and later checked, that e.g. DH says in his review that "his compositional gifts were marginal at best.".
I think, this is not the case for Furtwängler.

Michael 

[Wunderhorn]

Thats interesting...have you heard Klemperer's Symphonies?  He's another great conducter who has unperformed music.  I've never heard Furtwangler's or Klemperer's work...but I aim to listen one of this days.

I am eager to hear what others may think of these works (of Furtwangler or Klemperer)...good or bad?  Or middle of the road talent in composition?

Also Felix Weingartner (the conductor) wrote symphonies; He was considered quite good at it also. cpo has released them, along with symphonies of Wetz, Draeseke. (www.draeseke.org has a free legal mp3 of Draeseke's 3rd symphony.)

[Leo K]

Thats interesting...have you heard Klemperer's Symphonies?  He's another great conducter who has unperformed music.  I've never heard Furtwangler's or Klemperer's work...but I aim to listen one of this days.

I am eager to hear what others may think of these works (of Furtwangler or Klemperer)...good or bad?  Or middle of the road talent in composition?

Also Felix Weingartner (the conductor) wrote symphonies; He was considered quite good at it also. cpo has released them, along with symphonies of Wetz, Draeseke. (www.draeseke.org has a free legal mp3 of Draeseke's 3rd symphony.)

Thanks for the link...this is a great site!

[Ivor]

The Furtwangler is pretty good,quite brucknerian as I recall.

I recently picked up Klemperer's 7th,with a string quartet. He's got something;it's grittily engaging.

Barry,I think the little Klemperer piece you heard was probably his merry Waltz,sort of peppery Strauss,J. 


   Ivor

[Jeff Wozniak]

I would pay top dollar to hear Furtwangler conducting Mahler's cycle.

[akiralx]

I once heard a very short work by Klemperer that was really good. I don't remember the name of it. But again, it was quite short. Antal Dorati also composed symphonies. Markevitch, Martinon (I think), and Paul Paray (Detroit) were composers as well.

Martinon was - Kubelik recorded his 2nd Violin Concerto for DG (in the Kubelik Rare Recordings DG Originals box).  I once heard a dreadful ballet by Markevitch. 

Paray was strange in that he never went to concerts, listened to the radio or records, or attended other's rehearsals - so the only music he ever heard were his own concerts.  Still I like his Suppé overtures disc on Mercury...

[barry guerrero]

"Paray was strange in that he never went to concerts, listened to the radio or records, or attended other's rehearsals - so the only music he ever heard were his own concerts".

At a point earlier in his life, he must have done those things quite often or he never would have heard any music at all, much less become a musician himself.  By the time he got to Detroit, I'm sure that he was working enough that he didn't need to go hear other folks. Enough is enough, you when you have to work at it almost everyday.

"Still I like his Suppé overtures disc on Mercury..."

I can't think of any reason why you or anyone else shouldn't like his Suppe disc. In fact, I don't think that he recorded anything that wasn't at least likeable. I feel that Paray/Detroit has one of the best conductor/orchestra, recorded legacies going; right up there with Ormandy/Philly; Reiner/CSO; Szell/Cleveland; Munch/BSO; Karajan/Berlin; Haitink/Concertgebouw, etc.

[Ivor]

Pedant alert.

It's Klemperer's 2nd,not 7th,I've played and enjoyed. 'Twas the s.q. that was no.2.


     Ivor