Wilhelm Furtwängler - Symphonies No. 4 and 7 (1943) [2011]

Furtwängler's superb 1943 Berlin Beethoven Symphonies

Fabulous performances in excellent new XR remasters

Furtwängler's live wartime recordings were made on iron oxide tape by Radio Berlin, which took a relayed feed of four microphones placed in the Alte Philharmonie concert hall and preserved them on 14-inch reels of tape running at 30 inches per second, each tape lasting up to 20 minutes. (Fifty years later the same basic technology, albeit somewhat refined, was still in use by broadcasters around the world - the tape was by now running at 15 inches per second, the reels were 10.5 inches in diameter, most recorded two tracks to accommodate stereo, and they managed 32 minutes per reel, but the system would have been quickly recognisable by any Radio Berlin radio engineer of the 1940s.)

The principle microphone, placed in front of the stage was, like all of the microphones used there, omnidirectional. Whilst probably delivering the best sound quality available at the time, these microphones had the obvious downside of picking up sound equally from all directions, including of course the coughs and other assorted noises emanating from the audience. Removing or reducing audience noise has been one of a number of key priorities here, and special attention was paid to the quiet introduction of the Fourth Symphony, which had been particularly badly afflicted.

Although the tapes, which spent many years in Soviet Russia after the war (during which time a number were lost), had done a remarkably good job of capturing the sound of the orchestra and preserving it the direct sound from them was harsh, and lacked in both bass depth and treble expansion. Re-equalisation during XR remastering has done much to improve this, and to reveal far more sonic detail in the recordings than might previously have been apparent.

Andrew Rose



Tracks:

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 4
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7

Personnel:

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler