Orchestral Suite No 3 in D Major, BWV 1068 by Johann Sebastian Bach 1. Overture 2. Air 3. Gavotte I & II 4. Bourée 5. Gigue Philharmonic orchestra Berlin Wilhelm Furtwängler 24.X.1948
Like decanting a bottle of fine wine, these tempi bring out the true meaning of Bach's music. I learned to trust Furtwangler, he always knew what he was doing. And OMG did he understand the inner truth of any score he was conducting. Furtwangler was a medium, nothing less
Chers Amis de Wilhelm Furtwängler, merci à Ulrich de nous permettre de revivre cet enregistrement que j'ai sur vinyle mais que j'ai eu beaucoup de plaisir à retrouver cet après-midi. Je comprends le commentaire de Jason mais ... nous sommes sur un plan artistique et spirituel tout autre ... Puissiez-vous le rejoindre, Jason, auprès de cet immense artiste qui nous aide à respirer un art musical d'une profondeur exceptionnellement bienfaisante. Béatrice
I love Furtwängler's Bach. It's a wonderful recreation of the great architecture that Bach assembled. As he states in his book, there is an art to his Bach as a whole. In recent years, conductors have been playing only "correct" performance based on "period references". As a result, the sound may sound beautiful for a time, but there is nothing that speaks to it as a whole. Furtwängler's Bach is in stark contrast to them. Thus, even if the sound quality is so poor (i.e., even if the individual sounds are not so clearly audible), this recording is so valuable because the whole, beyond the individual sounds, speaks to us.
The Overture & Air is like bringing something I'm nostalgic about and listening to a memory tied to it. I've only found this video in the last few months, yet I feel nostalgic about something.
I know that this kind of interpretation is far from what nowadays is considered historically 'correct'. Furtwängler keeps the Romantic way of playing Bach, the same Schumann and Mendelssohn used and believed; but then, why does it sound so beautiful? I don't get it.
J Antonio, you find this beautiful. Good for you, but for me it sounds boring whit this slow tempi. In my opinion it is mportant to restore this old music, make attempts to bring this old music closer to the original style. But I have no rights to criticize those who prefer this version, so please enjoy!
@@edwinblank58 I'm not knowledgeable enough about Furtwangler to understand how he could claim this. And didn't Harnoncourt claim the same thing? Harnoncourt's interpretation of this piece couldn't be more different. I do like this version by Furtwrangler. Klemperer also did an impressive version in his (?1957) recording.
@@JasonJason210 Furtwängler always felt and knew what the composer intended. Please listen to his Beethoven 9th and you will probably understand what I and the famous music-critics meant by writing this. His absolutely best 9th was in 1944 wen there was no future for the Germans. They and he could die every day during the bombings on the German cities. czcams.com/video/TTLm8EsC2KU/video.html
To be compared with Knappertsbusch's version: czcams.com/video/FJWLU1ja_1Y/video.html. I tend to prefer the latter. Furt's version is magnificent, with a haunting second movement, but I find it a little... idiosyncratic.
Grande rispetto per questo sommo artista che però non aveva nulla compreso di Bach. Agogica, suono nulla è barocco! Basti ascoltare Toscanini nella stessa opera per capire quanto io dica
Non capisco perché dovrebbe essere invece più veloce....Forse perché tutto oggigiorno è tanto veloce? Per carità, finiamola con le prassi esecutive , che non si sa da dove provengano, e soprattutto con gli "strappi" insopportabili e nevrastenici agli archi... Ma è solo il mio pensiero....
Deadly--Laborious beyond digestion. Every beat like a thumping of a soldier's boot on the ground. No line at all.. And it isnt just the time of the performance...there are others (Cortot playing the 5th Brandenburg for instance) that are not dull. Did Furtwangler ever see a Baroque painting?? Read a Baroque novel? Enter the dizzying interior of a Baroque Church? Yuck.
I would not underestimate him. Not at all. He spoke several languages without making a mistake. I read some of his books. His eduacation (Bildung) is tremendous. I woul not asses it lower than that of Goethe. He certainly had his own concept of the Baroque.
@@stephanoszwi9897 No one underestimates Furtwangler. He was a giant and his conducting of so much 19th century rep is a high point. But he does not have a unique or beautiful concept of Baroque music. It is heavy, laborious, burdened and ugly. I'll take his Tristan...thank you. But comparing him to Goethe is a bit much.
I don't expect the people raised on so called "accurate baroque performance practice" to feel all that comfortable with this performance because it is so very different than what we are now used to hearing in a Bach performance. When however we have run and gun musical idiots just coming by and negating this approach by saying "yuck", as though their philisitine tastes give them the right to say such things, I have to draw the line and call BS. I like the correct Baroque ensemble proportions and when I conduct Baroque music do it that way. In terms of balance however it should be kept in mind that Baroque music is built form the bass up, and that basslines are meant to be heard, not "felt" or "implied". Too many Baroque performances are so fast that they undermine the fact that in Germany the string bass had very thick gut strings, in many cases only 3 strings, and were not as nimble as the modern instrument. There is a reasonable historical argument that we are playing Bach way too fast, so fast that the instruments of his own time could never have articulated all of the figures clearly at these new speeds. Many rushed performances played on ancient insruments prove this point. They are blurred, messy and out of tune, as well as thin in terms of orchestral timbre. I want to be able to hear all of Bach's amazing harmonies, figures, and contrapuntal interplay. Rushing tempi spoils that. I also want to hear a heavy Baroque bassline such as the aesthetic of the time. These horribly thin modern performances that have glutted the Baroque market do not provide that lower end richness. I don't want to feel as though the conductor has a bowel issue and must rush off to the bathroom after the last movement of a Bach work or he'll soil his underwear. I don't want a weak, unimpressive ensemble sound, something akin to the sound a can opener makes when opening a can of coffee or tunafish. Furtwangle is an extreme example of course because he is THE arch romantic conductor. I prefer this however to the dry lifeless crap that passes for "accurate Baroque performance" practice these days.
Estamos ante otra dimensión musical. El gran maestro alemán nos transporta fuera de éste mundo. Que gran lección de éste director, colosal.
perfecta definición la que ha hecho usted.
Like decanting a bottle of fine wine, these tempi bring out the true meaning of Bach's music. I learned to trust Furtwangler, he always knew what he was doing. And OMG did he understand the inner truth of any score he was conducting. Furtwangler was a medium, nothing less
Chers Amis de Wilhelm Furtwängler, merci à Ulrich de nous permettre de revivre cet enregistrement que j'ai sur vinyle mais que j'ai eu beaucoup de plaisir à retrouver cet après-midi. Je comprends le commentaire de Jason mais ... nous sommes sur un plan artistique et spirituel tout autre ... Puissiez-vous le rejoindre, Jason, auprès de cet immense artiste qui nous aide à respirer un art musical d'une profondeur exceptionnellement bienfaisante. Béatrice
1. Ouverture
2. Air ( 8:06 )
3. Gavotte I & II ( 14:42 )
4. Bourrée ( 17:29 )
5. Gigue ( 18:24 )
I love Furtwängler's Bach. It's a wonderful recreation of the great architecture that Bach assembled.
As he states in his book, there is an art to his Bach as a whole. In recent years, conductors have been playing only "correct" performance based on "period references". As a result, the sound may sound beautiful for a time, but there is nothing that speaks to it as a whole. Furtwängler's Bach is in stark contrast to them.
Thus, even if the sound quality is so poor (i.e., even if the individual sounds are not so clearly audible), this recording is so valuable because the whole, beyond the individual sounds, speaks to us.
The Overture & Air is like bringing something I'm nostalgic about and listening to a memory tied to it. I've only found this video in the last few months, yet I feel nostalgic about something.
magistral de tension musicale et quelle noblesse d'expression !!
Merci Ulrich Dünnebach c'est wowwwwwwwww Fabuleux !
Unbelievable beauty and expression!
Lifts the spirits like little else.
Vielen Dank!
Miracles beauty🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀
Desde Argentina, muchas gracias!
Beautiful ! Thank you very much :)
malgré la qualité de l'enregistrement ,c'est magique
grazie
There is always something epic in Furtwangler. Humanity’s great march towards its fate... In the tumult of nature.
Very stately
I know that this kind of interpretation is far from what nowadays is considered historically 'correct'. Furtwängler keeps the Romantic way of playing Bach, the same Schumann and Mendelssohn used and believed; but then, why does it sound so beautiful? I don't get it.
J Antonio, you find this beautiful. Good for you, but for me it sounds boring whit this slow tempi. In my opinion it is mportant to restore this old music, make attempts to bring this old music closer to the original style. But I have no rights to criticize those who prefer this version, so please enjoy!
It seems slow but the only way Bach intended it. Furtwängler understood the composers like nobody else.
How do you know that Bach intended it that way?
@@JasonJason210 Furtwängeler knew, he always understood the intentions of the composer.
@@edwinblank58 I'm not knowledgeable enough about Furtwangler to understand how he could claim this. And didn't Harnoncourt claim the same thing? Harnoncourt's interpretation of this piece couldn't be more different. I do like this version by Furtwrangler. Klemperer also did an impressive version in his (?1957) recording.
@@JasonJason210 Furtwängler always felt and knew what the composer intended. Please listen to his Beethoven 9th and you will probably understand what I and the famous music-critics meant by writing this. His absolutely best 9th was in 1944 wen there was no future for the Germans. They and he could die every day during the bombings on the German cities. czcams.com/video/TTLm8EsC2KU/video.html
@@edwinblank58 I fully agree with you
To be compared with Knappertsbusch's version: czcams.com/video/FJWLU1ja_1Y/video.html. I tend to prefer the latter. Furt's version is magnificent, with a haunting second movement, but I find it a little... idiosyncratic.
Perché idiosincrasia?
Grande rispetto per questo sommo artista che però non aveva nulla compreso di Bach. Agogica, suono nulla è barocco! Basti ascoltare Toscanini nella stessa opera per capire quanto io dica
Ignorans legis non excusant
Secondo lei.
Mah...
Ma cosa sta dicendo...
Oh my goodness, can he play any slower? Sounds like a funeral march.
Non capisco perché dovrebbe essere invece più veloce....Forse perché tutto oggigiorno è tanto veloce? Per carità, finiamola con le prassi esecutive , che non si sa da dove provengano, e soprattutto con gli "strappi" insopportabili e nevrastenici agli archi... Ma è solo il mio pensiero....
Addio bel passato!
Deadly--Laborious beyond digestion. Every beat like a thumping of a soldier's boot on the ground. No line at all.. And it isnt just the time of the performance...there are others (Cortot playing the 5th Brandenburg for instance) that are not dull. Did Furtwangler ever see a Baroque painting?? Read a Baroque novel? Enter the dizzying interior of a Baroque Church? Yuck.
No line? You have no ears.
Just listen to the Cortot performance of BB 5. that is fine sensitive playing. This is not.
@@canalesworks1247
I would not underestimate him. Not at all. He spoke several languages without making a mistake. I read some of his books. His eduacation (Bildung) is tremendous. I woul not asses it lower than that of Goethe. He certainly had his own concept of the Baroque.
@@stephanoszwi9897 No one underestimates Furtwangler. He was a giant and his conducting of so much 19th century rep is a high point. But he does not have a unique or beautiful concept of Baroque music. It is heavy, laborious, burdened and ugly. I'll take his Tristan...thank you. But comparing him to Goethe is a bit much.
I don't expect the people raised on so called "accurate baroque performance practice" to feel all that comfortable with this performance because it is so very different than what we are now used to hearing in a Bach performance. When however we have run and gun musical idiots just coming by and negating this approach by saying "yuck", as though their philisitine tastes give them the right to say such things, I have to draw the line and call BS.
I like the correct Baroque ensemble proportions and when I conduct Baroque music do it that way.
In terms of balance however it should be kept in mind that Baroque music is built form the bass up, and that basslines are meant to be heard, not "felt" or "implied".
Too many Baroque performances are so fast that they undermine the fact that in Germany the string bass had very thick gut strings, in many cases only 3 strings, and were not as nimble as the modern instrument. There is a reasonable historical argument that we are playing Bach way too fast, so fast that the instruments of his own time could never have articulated all of the figures clearly at these new speeds. Many rushed performances played on ancient insruments prove this point. They are blurred, messy and out of tune, as well as thin in terms of orchestral timbre.
I want to be able to hear all of Bach's amazing harmonies, figures, and contrapuntal interplay. Rushing tempi spoils that.
I also want to hear a heavy Baroque bassline such as the aesthetic of the time. These horribly thin modern performances that have glutted the Baroque market do not provide that lower end richness.
I don't want to feel as though the conductor has a bowel issue and must rush off to the bathroom after the last movement of a Bach work or he'll soil his underwear.
I don't want a weak, unimpressive ensemble sound, something akin to the sound a can opener makes when opening a can of coffee or tunafish.
Furtwangle is an extreme example of course because he is THE arch romantic conductor. I prefer this however to the dry lifeless crap that passes for "accurate Baroque performance" practice these days.