Beethoven "Symphony No 7" Furtwängler 1943 (2. Mov.)

Symphony No 7 in A Major, op 92
by Ludwig van Beethoven
2. Movement: "Allegretto"
Berlin Philharmonic
Wilhelm Furtwängler, conductor
Berlin Philharmonie, 03.XI.1943

[@fiddlersontheramp5417]

Perfect tempo. Nice and slow:)

[@Ileana5173]

Beethoven + Furtwängler = Magical perfection!! The best!!

[@curtisunit]

Jesus Christ, I’d never heard it like this before and I don’t particularly want to hear it any other way now. Really moving.

[@thomashensellek6656]

This is a problem you will often encounter with Furtwängler interpretations.

[@curtisunit]

I feel like you never know what you’re getting with the live recordings. They can be chaotic, even bizarre or they can change your experience of a piece entirely and you never want to hear it differently. Unfortunately the latter happened to me with this. Dammit now I have to listen to these low fi mono recordings and imagine them in glorious stereo. It’s ok it’s worth it sometimes.

[@taha._.kianmehr]

Me too

[@zaza6911]

The best no7 interpretation up to now, as far as I know. Goosebumps everywhere. Like a warning to Hitler who probably didn't hear it too well. Schade.

[@Gordonthevet]

Beethoven wrote this piece in 1812, and at its first performance, the audience rose in applause after the second movement - an unheard of breach of etiquette - but such was the power of his music for that moment in history. Given this performance in 1943, when the tide of war was turning for the Third Reich, I feel this piece projecting the same warning for its period as when it was first played. What a great performance!

[@patrickpaganini]

True. And I was taught when I did a music degree that people booed because it was so "new and novel" (composer in the attic mentality). Obviously this was rubbish. I was also taught Mozart had no money because he was not popular. Obviously Mozart was insanely popular and earned lots of money, but spent it very quickly. I'm sick of modern revisionism (bearing in mind this revisionism was in the 80s!). And to your point, I'm sure people knew things weren't going well in 43. Even non-Jewish Germans were leaving Germany in the 30s because they disliked the autocracy. I don't think any one was under any illusion in 43 as to what the likely outcome was.

[@Hottiedonkey]

Shut up.

[@JoahnNorghe]

❤❤❤👍👍👍

[@maraboo72]

@@patrickpaganini The reason for non-Jewish Germans was in most cases not that they disliked the autocracy but because they were in severe danger. Fashists are everybody's enemy who is not completely with them. People mostly talk about the Jewish victims. It was much more horrible. They also killed and tortured Roma and Sinti, Social Democrats, Communists, Protestants, Catholics, Unionists, Homosexuals, disabled persons and the list goes on.

[@maurocoimbra9624]

​@@maraboo72 True!

[@СветланаЧурякова]

сентябрь 1943-го года.... С чуйкой у маэстро всё отлично.

[@robertwilson123]

Wilhelm Furtwangler was a really excellent Beethoven, Wagner and Mozart interpreter. I've never heard a poor recording by Furtwangler.

[@tomcollen462]

Regarding those who do not like this, I'm reminded of the time a coworker and I discussed what music we'd take to a desert island. My 1st choice was Beethoven's 9th symphony as conducted by W Furtwangler, Berlin 1943. The other guy's first choice was John Lennon's 'Instant Karma!' Sheesh. I feel some people haven't considered enough music to recognize what is truly great.

[@paulhoffmann3405]

Why so intolerant? John Lennon was also a genius in his own right and a master of melody.

[@Snoogleheimer]

Masterpiece for sure. Recorded in Berlin during WWII. Adds to it I believe.

[@SandroIvoBartoliofficial]

How on Earth there are 5 people who do not like this??? It is divine! Listen!!! Thank you for the upload, Belpassatoaddio!

[@mariobarbov9605]

Ceux dont les oreilles sont pétries de préjugés

[@citzie]

They are sociopaths

[@qualityvigilante599]

now its 6..

[@affonsosantos5729]

The world is full of idiots.

[@eblackbrook]

I'm going to guess they couldn't get past all the coughing.

[@MattH-wg7ou]

Oh my God it's so perfect! The piece as a whole, but also this performance.

[@vicentegomes7270]

I cryng... the best !

[@AHA270849]

@@vicentegomes7270 Auch mir kommen die Tränen. Diese Transparenz und Intensität überwältigen.

[@louise_rose]

Yes it is! I remember watching an early 1970s performance of the same symphony (on Mezzo a few years ago) with Karajan leading the Berliner PO - also amazing, of riveting energy and rich colour...This one is simply perfect, and at the time in 1943 it certainly echoed the horror and tragedy of the war and the shameful regime they were living under.

[@SK-xv3hn]

As a pretty old man and combat veteran knowing Germany was having 1,000 bomber raids at this time day and night and dozens of firebombed cities leveled it shows beauty over evil going on all around while Symphony No. 7: II. Allegretto, Beethoven was being offered to G-d.

[@zitzwitz]

The only second movement expressing the pathos. Why does everyone speed up this beautiful part?

[@FedorAmosov]

Because it is written as Allegretto

[@FedorAmosov]

But I am perfectly sure that Beetohoven just meant that it should not be deadly slow

[@zitzwitz]

I respect and love your performances, but have you considered Beethoven's state of mind at the time he wrote the seventh? the effect it might have had on him? The sadness and insanity? If you would not be a learned musician, and had no idea what Allegreto means, would you have the same reaction? Also Beethoven's hearing was no longer "normal". Could it be that when he wrote Allegretto, he really meant a speed slower then the customary tempi? All I can say is that their is no sadness, or pathos in the faster versions:", but surly. is in the Furtwangler's.

[@ТатьянаФедорова-д5ц3д]

Самое глубокое прочтение этой гениальной музыки великим Маэстро Вильгельмом Фуртвенглером! Наконец я услышала этот трагический марш в таком темпе! Низкий поклон прекрасному музыканту и дирижеру.Светлая ему Память,,,❤

[@affonsosantos5729]

One of the sublime masterpieces of Western music, in a inspired interpretation imbued with sadness brought about by the heavy tragedy of Germany’s war years.

[@voraciousreader3341]

“....by the self-inflicted heavy tragedy of the war years,” I think you mean. Hitler wanted Germany destroyed, and it very nearly was, bc the stupid people couldn’t think without him. And, after all, the Germans were simply repaid for all of the civilian terror and death, and mass destruction they wrought all over Europe as the Germans at home laughed and sang.

[@louise_rose]

It does have some of the quality of a funeral march here. Furtwängler was definitely no admirer of Hitler - when they met shortly after Hitler took power, the encounter drifted into a shouting match, and Willi confided to his wife that he "had now understood that Hitler was a danger to German culture" and even more - and he decided to remain in Berlin during the Third Reich precisely to protect the heritage of German music and his orchestra. By the time of this performance in late 1943, some of the people present surely realized that Germany was doomed and that the worst was still to come...

[@nottmjas]

"heavy tragedy of Germany's war years" The poor dears. One could almost feel sorry for them but for the fact that they started the war and acted brutally to those they conquered whilst they were winning. They had it coming to them, just like the Russians have it coming to them.

[@Marinavalerevna]

​@@nottmjasНе трогайте Россию. Не стоит судить о том, чего понять не можете.

[@nottmjas]

@@Marinavalerevna KZbin doesn't translate from Orc into English.

[@voraciousreader3341]

I can’t listen to this movement very often bc my heart feels like it will explode. Even the coughers and hackers couldn’t take the gorgeous brilliance away from it.

[@renato45222]

L'attimo del passaggio, della transizione, dal minore al maggiore (nelle due battute a ridosso della doppia stanghetta) è svolto stupendamente, con un microscopico rallentando subito ripreso. Geniale. Karajan lo imiterà e lo imiterà bene, ma il Berlinese resta insuperabile. Questo, ovviamente, è solo uno tra i mille esempi che si potrebbero proporre per evidenziare la genialità interpretativa di Furtwangler. Sulla scelta dei tempi ci sarebbe da dire molto: la sua ermeneutica di "Allegretto" in questa pagina resta storicamente sublime.

[@francescaemc2]

Karajan non appartiene nemmeno nella stessa frase con Furtwängler; forse la Berlin l'ha dovuto sopportare, ma mi no. ;)

[@Kuseikos]

@@francescaemc2 Karajan è un genio sconfinato per molti aspetti superiore a Furtwängler

[@wilfriedwang1843]

In hindsight, this comment is written in Berlin on the 8. May 2020, 75 years after the end of the Second World War. Beethoven's spirit anticipated so much tragedy and pain and yet it showed hope despite all the despair. The Allegretto begins with a march, a funeral procession that I believe Furtwängler wants us to hear. Did his audience hear this interpretation too? Did they believe that the submission of the rest of the world to German aggression was announced in Beethoven's transfiguration from the funeral march into the culminating fanfare of the Allegretto? Or did this music make them think twice? Did it foreshadow their own eternal sin? What irony then in the use of Beethoven's music as the background to the movie The King's Speech. George VI's haltering speech at the beginning of Britain's entry into the Second World War to the nation subtly burdened by the yoke in the opening bars only to have this yoke lifted towards the speech's end with Beethoven's music: ...we can only do the right as we see the right ..."

[@sasharadosavljevic972]

It would be nice if wars were that simple. Simple things/problems have simple solutions. Unfortunately, wars are complex processes. Just sain'.

[@tangospirit22]

divine Music, divine interpretation

[@alexvilaseca8911]

It's incredible! Wonderful music conducted by the best conductor. Furtwangler, Karajan and maybe Böhm have been the best beethoven's and wagner's performances of all times.

[@subhamaybhattacharya2518]

Add the Otto Klemperer version too..

[@musicfanBRA]

A performance full of spirit, of sadness, of force of this masterpiece.

[@markprice6331]

And to think this recording was 80 years ago, every player and listener probably no longer alive and yet the music is perfect and haunting, to be honest the noise and coughing, somehow addes to it as we know that people were there

[@nortons7040]

Best version so far.

[@erichall7068]

The best rendition of the second movement in the KZbin playlist! Thank you:-)

[@chrisackerley1842]

If human being have ever done anything finer than this, I don't know what it is.

[@francescaemc2]

check out Glenn Gould playing Bach's Goldberg Variations. You have great taste.

[@medjadjialdja4058]

@@francescaemc2 yudina

[@francescaemc2]

@@medjadjialdja4058 Also Tatiana Nikolayeva, you are right! I prefer Gould's 1982, though.

[@smilingnihilist1]

Try his Tristan und Isolde: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nXikfJqlmNF9bKM

[@Сергейстаромодныйов]

Karl Heinz Böhm, Mozart's Requiem.

[@AHA270849]

Furtwängler und Beethoven 🤩 - Wie nur macht er es, daß es anders klingt als man es je gehört hat und nach ihm hören wird? Daß es wahrhaft unerhört klingt bei ihm?

[@TBVIR]

I was surprised 1. This recording quality was so fine 2. His conducting and the orchestra's play was so amazing it was such a masterpiecd

[@jinnymudlark1815]

Perfect. Thank you for posting.

[@ibidthefrog]

This always used to be my least favourite movement of this symphony (for all it's my favourite Beethoven) until I heart this version and it almost bought a year to my eye

[@isiscarvalhonoronha3677]

Tristeza para todos que estão partindo nesse momento de dor essa música está acompanhando nesse sofrimento de toda humanidade Isis

[@MarinusBrooshooft]

Excellent performance

[@joshlini3224]

The best classical music interpretation ever recorded... divine and conscious

[@corrado6240]

La perfezione non ha età. INSUPERABILE!

[@francescaemc2]

completamente insuperabile! Ha ragione!!!

[@jaimebernal2011]

Que versión tan preciosa la ese director de ese año así es como debe haberse escuchado la original que linda

[@Wedneswere]

Straight from the bowels of Hell on Earth (note time and place), shone this musical LIGHT...!

[@kevinator5982]

It wasn't hell on earth but under Weimar government and soviet occupation!

[@tradewins]

@@kevinator5982 what are you talking about? 1943!!!!

[@morn9193]

@@tradewins he saying it was hell under weimar not under the reich, the truth of course

[@Vodovozable]

@@tradewins They just said Adolf is their god and Stalin was the hell for them.

[@hansmahr8627]

Right, the Third Reich during which millions of people died of war, torture and murder was not hell, it was the Weimar Republic that was the real horror. Of course. Fucking Nazis.

[@theenglishalpinist5031]

Here is the definitive tempo for this, capturing the epic mood! Just a pity Coronavirus cough appears to have been widespread in those days.

[@quattuorperquattuor1711]

Did Beethoven really write it this slow ? Furtwängler couldn't have misread the score. Sounds like everybody else is jazzing it up.

[@QuartBernstein311]

@@quattuorperquattuor1711 I usually look for the slow, self-indulgent 9-10 min versions of this on KZbin.

[@nicolecuvillier9698]

magnifique !!!!

[@maurocoimbra9624]

It's magical and far beyond human imagination.

[@guidomotshagen7541]

I was 3yo when I first heard it and felt the tears streaming down my cheeks. Now being old I still have those tears. Beethoven at his best, better than (even) Mozart.

[@patrickpaganini]

It's funny how one's reaction to music doesn't change. I did a performance degree and played violin many years in an orchestra - but my emotional reaction to music hasn't changed since I was a child. I like all the same music I liked when I was very little. I remember when I first heard this movement I thought "how did nobody tell me this was the best music, and I should listen to it?". Beethoven and the Beatles! (And Furtwangler and Huberman!).

[@MartinValadezMancilla-jz6gq]

Señor no mejores o peores solo disfrute esta bella música,la crítica o "análisis" banal no sirven aquí su alma se lo agradecería

[@michelponte2857]

Et c'est bien un allegretto !

[@PeterSchäfer-g5d]

Beethoven + Furtwängler with the BPO is simply divine.

[@Marinavalerevna]

Великий Бетховен. Великий Фуртвенглер.

[@angeljo9420]

Le divin et le diabolique. Faustien..

[@schaerffenberg]

Recorded on Munich Martyrs Day, the 20th anniversary of the Hitler Putsch, when sixteen comrades were killed and the Movement was outlawed. That explains the poignant rendition of this commemorative performance.

[@francescaemc2]

Thank you. I didn't know this.

[@bertbresgen8616]

Marc Roland: Obviously you are a Nazi Idiot. The poignant rendition does 1943 obviously not come from the "HitlerPutsch" 20 years ago, but from the senseless war Hitler brought over germany and the world

[@TheDylanphile]

"like a solemn procession of mourning figures in black robes and feathers silently gliding to the rhythm of the winds..." that is exactly what i see when i listen to the second movement of the 7th.

[@umbertotoni3021]

TheDylanphile perfect

[@whatsittoyou7199]

Who uttered the words in your quote which referred to mourning figures in black robes

[@Admin-Ed]

I hear a lot of people with covid in the background

[@markmcclain7080]

The music is always amazing. The thought of Jews being slaughtered just down the street while this is being played is a bit disconcerting

[@FedorAmosov]

He saved a lot of Jewish people himself

[@lucabidoli1654]

Commovente, intensa interpretazione.

[@falstaff1950]

Tempo magnifique et bien compris . Bravissimo

[@loisdupont2328]

merveilleux sublime

[@ТатьянаЗахарова-м7у]

Гениальная музыка и гениальное исполнение!

[@ВиталикЛитвинов-ц3ж]

И аккомпанимент кашляющих нацистов, сидящих в зале... Интересно, что они рисовали в своем воображении, слушая музыку?

[@galileogalilei7777]

Divine sounds and coughing of Nazi in the background.

[@QuartBernstein311]

/put me in the audio cap. inb4 Nazi 404

[@lmt61251]

Perfection

[@adilouachane9673]

the art of giving a meaningful sense of motivation as a reason of being intelligent , because people like to be intelligent, and living an intelligible life, furthermore this meaning is among politic tasks to achieve it on a real plan , as much as a future objective , which is a substantial performance or return or result of human intelligence . Because why we need to be intelligent ? Politic should responds to this question through strengthening institutions , because institutions can make people more productive ,more predictable in front of the future , by this way the objectives of intelligentsia and intelligence can be convergent with the opportunities

[@MartinValadezMancilla-jz6gq]

Yo digo solo disfrutenla y aprencien esta bella música.no analizen tanto mejor escuchen su conciencia.y para los ateos pues inventen sus cosas.con respeto

[@hgumen]

Unreal...

[@velkaprasadamka8285]

Ukrutna dokonalost

[@paga123]

An Allegretto or a funeral march ?? I had loved this piece for 50 years and I never succeeded to choice !

[@KrioK9]

People coughing, dogs barking, no respect

[@JoahnNorghe]

È sempre presente. Dipende da come lo si sente e vive. Come il Presente e il Futuro. Allora si vive nel tempo. Infinito.

[@miraa9759]

9.30

[@INKVISITOR666]

9:30 :

[@paga123]

Furtwangler playing Beethoven : I never heard a message so consistent with a messenger !

[@victormedrano2316]

Such powerful

[@marinagonzalezmartin]

It's almost a minute less allegretto than any of the other performance that l've ever listened to

[@mariobarbov9605]

Une merveille je l'affirme et pourtant je suis Juif le génie n'a rien avoir avec les magouilles et l'ignominie des politiciens

[@allaabr3374]

💓💓💓💓💓💓💋💋💋💋💋💋❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@hansachs]

Epic slowness, works though, how much slower can it get and still be cohesive?!

[@FedorAmosov]

It can be, but at this point it is not necessary)

[@marianoruiz7626]

Eso no es un alegretto. Es un adagio e incluso un largo en ciertas partes.

[@KrioK9]

Agree

[@ruizodaniel]

que pena... beethoven se equivocó! 😄 what a shame..., beethoven was wrong! 😄

[@serhattaskesen3635]

Bernstein's recording is so close to this. Both are perfect.

[@kdochce-vidi8540]

Grazie molto🇨🇿👍

[@lucilebertrand1778]

Z0ZZ 🔵⚪🔴👏👏👏👌

[@anthonyschnurer3369]

Haunting Lu beautiful

[@francescaemc2]

grazie

[@19eightyforeisnow]

apocalyptic

[@rimbauxxx]

Emociona hasta las lágrimas. (Que misterio hay en la música)

[@jorgmatysik3151]

Wahnsinn. Echtes Menschentum. Danke!

[@mariclaraoliveira1339]

Sem tosse seria melhor

[@marcellovacca3155]

Muito!

[@KrioK9]

No barking also

[@peterroger6632]

Unerreicht, vielleicht unerreichbare Interpretation. Das 3. Reich war auch nicht nur schlecht. Die Ernsthaftigkeit, die tiefe Dramatik wird hier plastisch geradezu greifbar. Seelische Tiefendimensionen werden ausgelotet von F., die uns in jene Endzeit eintauchen lassen. Nicht nachmachen-neu machen ihr heutigen Musici!

[@hansmahr8627]

Die Qualität der Aufführung hier hat nichts mit dem dritten Reich zu tun sondern mit dem Genie Furtwänglers. Furtwängler wiederum hat alles versucht um sich aus der politischen Umklammerung zu lösen, was nur schlecht gelang.

[@makro-hesse8571]

Henceforth I’ll use 7:15 7:45 as my new ringtone. “If one and all we all keep resolutely faithful to it, then, with Gods help, we shall prevail!”

[@Charliecomet82]

Was ist das? Ist das Bach?

[@mohammeddavidzhang-singh5846]

No, it's your stupidity.

[@INKVISITOR666]

Бетховен в исполнении Фуртвенглера

[@whatsittoyou7199]

This reminds me that Lionel Trilling said that there is a very high correlation between artistic genius and rabid right wing politics. This is musical genius from the belly of the beat, Berlin 1043. I don't know why, but I think Trilling's observation was correct.

[@aaronaragon7838]

Hmm...Makes sense. Trump"s 19th Symphony?

[@EmptyVee00000]

Too slow!

[@cleess2836]

Suits it better, though...

[@ermiramecaj7625]

Too slow. Karajan has the best version!

[@thomashensellek6656]

Karajan was The Sorcerer's Apprentice. At best.

[@serhattaskesen3635]

No, Bernstein's better.

[@FedorAmosov]

Karajan is a Nazi and so he was it until his death, some people are still alive among those who has seen him rising his hand up@@thomashensellek6656

[@markprice6331]

It is beautiful and haunting when performed slowly

[@billg1411]

The slower tempo conveys a much more emotional message

[@steli6490]

That old Nazi Furtwangler could indeed conduct Beethoven. No one can take that away from him.

[@afritimm]

SteLi 64 A little too facile. He was certainly never a Nazi supporter, in fact asserted some independence such as refusing the Nazi salute. But no, he didn’t leave the country.

[@masthema]

Futwangler was not a nazi..stupid words !!..and i'm french !

[@SZTANCSEK]

@@masthema Kodály sem hagyta el Magyarországot, mégsem volt kommunista.

[@lambazo]

Furtwangler was not a Nazi. He remained thinking his music was his best tool for resistance. But who knows what goes on in the mind of a great artist. By conducting Beethoven, himself a revolutionary in his thinking as well as in composing, it was a way of standing up to Hitler. I can't judge, I just listen and admire and get transported beyond words.

[@christianl772]

Furtwängler was NEVER a nazi. To say or write that he was is just calomnia. It is very sad that some people try and destroy the reputation and honour of this great and righteous man on the basis of a fiction written for the theatre.