07 October 2016

Furtwängler's 1947 Eroica




At the present moment, we know that 11 recordings of the Eroica conducted by Furtwängler have been issued on LP or CD, of which 2 are studio recordings for EMI, made in November 1947 and 1952 respectively. Although his live recordings, particularly the wartime ones, are generally preferred to his studio recordings, his 2 post-war EMI studio recordings of the Eroica are such wonderful readings that even the French Furtwängler Society has included them among their best choices of the Eroica. (The other 2 are his 1944 and 8 Dec 1952 live recordings.)


The studio recording of his conducting the Vienna Philharmonic on 10, 11, 12 & 17 November 1947, with a retake of the opening of the second movement on 15 February 1949, is the one discussed today.





1947 is a crucial year in Furtwängler’s conducting career. He had just been allowed to conduct again in May after his prolonged denazification process after WWII. He had to earn as much as he could to repay the debts accumulated in the preceding years since his escape from Germany in 1945. After his concert engagements in the Salzburg and Lucerne Festivals that summer, he spent the large part of November making recordings for EMI, including Beethoven Coriolan Overture and Symphony No. 3, Mozart Serenade No. 10 and Brahms Symphony No. 1.


The Eroica was issued on 13 sides of 78 rpm discs in 1948. When the LP era came, he was asked by EMI to record the Eroica again in 1952 to satisfy the market for this fast growing format with minimal surface noise and unbreakable discs.


An often asked question is why they had a retake of the first 68 bars of the Funeral March in 1949. The original recording in 1947 was made in the Musikvereinsaal, Vienna. In this 1949 remake, a smaller orchestral force was employed and the recording was made in the smaller Brahmssaal. The “reason” for this remake has been given as the introduction of autochangers into the 78rpm market. However, the exact reason why a retake, and hence a new issue of this retake, is necessary for these autochangers is not explained in any detail. Here I attempt to give a technical explanation. At that time, a 78 rpm disc can accommodate at most 5 minutes of music. Side 5 of the original recording is just a few seconds short of 5 minutes. It is fine if the stylus is placed manually on the thin outer margin to start the music, but for autochangers with automatic placement of the stylus, a wider margin is supposed to be needed, and hence the music is to be shorter for proper functioning of the system. From CDs using the 78 rpm discs as the sound source, we know the 1949 retake lasts 4’39” to 4’47” depending on which remastering is used, and thus a safe margin at the periphery of the disc is ensured.


This 1947 Eroica is an account with beautiful playing from the Vienna Philharmonic and warm, attractive sound. In the opening movement, the tempo Furtwängler adopted is not significantly different from those in his other extant recordings. There is an extraordinary unity of structure. The trumpets are prominent in the later part of the movement, quite typical of his. The Funeral March is mesmerising in the hands of Furtwängler, with a very rich bass-line. The Scherzo is lively and energetic, contrasting with a slower Trio. The rubato is lovely. The allegro molto of the last movement is impulsive and it is the fastest in all his versions except perhaps the recording on 20 June 1950, and it drives the way to an overwhelming finale with tremendous power.


Brief comments on CDs of this recording


Shinseido SGR-8221 (issued on 21/3/1998): The CD and the remastering are made by Toshiba EMI, which claims an improvement in sound on TOCE 6054. It includes a separate track for the 1949 retake (4’39”). The sound of the instruments in the retake is closer, the timbre of the cellos is more resonant and the oboe is more prominent, all related to the acoustics of the smaller hall and probably different microphone placement. The pitch of this CD is a little higher than that of Tahra’s and Naxos’.


Tahra FURT 1027 (1999): Tahra states the reason for this reissue as they considered TOCE 6054 a “disaster” with "dampened sound, compressed dynamics, very noisy pressing and wrong pitch". In this CD, the background noise is much controlled. The first movement sounds more musical than Shinseido’s but unfortunately the sound is thinner particularly in the second movement, probably due to more aggressive noise suppression. It also includes a separate track for the 1949 retake (4’47”).


Naxos 8.110995 (2006): Remastered by Ward Marston. It states, “Every copy of this recording that I have inspected has contained the re-take of side 5, and therefore, I have not been able to include the original take of this side for the present edition”. However, on comparative listening, the exposition of the second movement is more similar to the original 1947 take than the later one.  The timing of this movement is also a clue. This CD has the least background noise compared with the others. The equalisation is shifted slightly more to the treble resulting in a brighter sound but unfortunately also thinner. The second movement is more doctored, e.g. the middle registers are boosted and a hint of reverb is added to give an apparent fully bass. The noise reduction also varies in intensity according to the music, e.g. during the oboe solo, it is more aggressive making the oboe sound cleaner and more prominent.


Goodies 78CD-3000 (issued on 17/4/2015): It is essentially a CD version of the set of 78 rpm discs. It contains 13 tracks, each corresponding to one side of the original 78s set. The producer claims he is not satisfied with the sound of the LP reissue of this recording in 1957 in the HMV/Columbia Great Recordings of the Century series. Therefore he uses the original 78s for its more vivid sound. He uses all-tube equipment to reproduce the sound and the present recording is a direct DSD recording. No extra equalisation or noise suppression was employed. The background surface noise is obviously loud and become rather intrusive in quieter passages of music. If your mind can ignore the ever-present background noise, the sound of the music is livelier than Shinseido’s though.



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