Beethoven / Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 "Eroica": 2nd mvt (Furtwängler)

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 "Eroica" (1804)

2. Marcia funebre: Adagio assai

Performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886-1954), 19-20 December 1944.

"The Third, Fifth, and Ninth Symphonies were the works of Beethoven that formed leitmotifs that reverberated throughout Furtwängler's career. He returned to them time and again in an attempt to find the ideal proportions for their anguish, depth, power, and anger. Historically, the Eroica symbolized the new European spirit--"liberty, equality, fraternity"--that rang out in the wake of Napoleon's campaigns. Though Beethoven became disenchanted with Napoleon the man, he still held dear the principles that had launched his march across Europe. The Eroica, like the times in which it was molded, is infused with revolution. Nothing had been created in music before that was as harmonically craggy and as abrasive and relentless.

"Unlike Toscanini, to whom the Eroica was only allegro con brio, Furtwängler clearly shows how profoundly the music spoke to him of issues and ideas; in comparison, musical matters seemed almost secondary. Yet the impulsive way Furtwängler conducts the first allegro of the Eroica might suggest at first that he and Toscanini were not so far apart, at least in matters of tempo when it came to this pivotal work (when the timings of their commercial recordings are compared, Furtwängler is usually about a minute or two longer than Toscanini, particularly in his conducting of scherzos and slow movements). But tempo is not the issue at stake here; attitude is. Furtwängler is always willing to put himself on the line emotionally to a far greater and more perceptive degree than is the case with the more militant Toscanini. ...

"In retrospect, it is ironic that Furtwängler had this [1944] recording suppressed legally when it first appeared in 1953 on the Urania label, for it has a thrust and majesty he was unable to recapture in either of his studio Eroicas. Like the 1951 Hamburg performance of the Brahms First Symphony or the wartime Coriolan Overture, this performance recreates the impact of Furtwängler at his most inspired. It sings with exaltation, particularly in the triumphant sounds of the brass, without losing the work's architectonics. This Eroica is more focused and less mercurial than the headstrong 'Schreiber' performance, and its nerve ends are less exposed. But the concentration and fierceness are markedly similar, though the 1944 performance seems somewhat broader in attitude because it is more consistent in its momentum, and its fire is more warming. The question of repeats forms the main textual difference between these two performances. The 'Schreiber' Eroica omits all repeats except those in the finale, while the 1944 performance is consistent with the remaining recorded Eroicas: no repeats in the first movement and all repeats taken in the third and fourth movements." - John Ardoin

Painting: Bonaparte Crossing the Alps, Paul Delaroche

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