There is no lack of
competition for Albrecht’s recording
of Furtwängler’s best and most
Brucknerian Symphony, the second. Begun
after his escape from Germany in the
last year of the War, it was completed
in 1947. He recorded it with the Berlin
Philharmonic in 1951 (only intermittently
available but now back on DG Originals
coupled with Schumann’s Fourth) though
there was a live performance on Orfeo
from 1953 with the Vienna Philharmonic
that is even finer and more incandescent
– and in good sound and currently still
available on C375941. There’s also a
Marco Polo of the Second with Alfred
Walter conducting the BBC SO and, much
better known, the relatively recent
Chicago/Barenboim on Teldec.
This is late-Romanticism
at its most blazing, one that very occasionally
co-opts Brahms but whose greater and
most intimate lineage is to the mid-century
romantics through Bruckner and Wagner.
From the wandering bassoon line that
begins this eighty-minute work we hear
a succession of consistently riveting
but not always consistently cohesive
effects; the beautiful slowing down
of the traffic of material at about
6.50 for example and the stirring Brucknerian
climaxes from 11.00 onwards. Or the
sense of anticipation throughout the
slow movement – where I find Brahms’
influence becomes more marked – or the
Russophile Scherzo. The big finale –
all twenty-eight minutes of it here
and the longest movement of the symphony
– is contained and separately tracked
on the second CD. The burnished brass
calls animate the movement, one in which
climax is piled on climax; some occasional,
wobbly intonation is preserved here.
There is a moment or two of tentative
trumpet entry points but in the main
the orchestra proves worthy if no match
for the Chicagoans.
Certainly the symphony
is rich in counterpoint and chorale
and preserves a direct line of descent
from Bruckner; it breaks no new ground
though it must shed light on Furtwängler.
Of the performances I’ve heard I would
go for Furtwängler (Orfeo –live)
as a first choice and back it up with
Barenboim. Honegger always maintained
that this Symphony was scored by a master
and even if one finds it unrelievedly
opaque and single-minded, both in scoring
and in direction, those words should
count for something. Albrecht is a good
guide who has recorded the First and
problematic Third symphonies of Furtwängler,
though his orchestra is not up to the
standard of the best. As I say, try
the composer-conductor first; it’s always
a good place to start.
Jonathan Woolf
Staatskapelle Weimar/George Alexander Albrecht
