Who is your Favorite Historical Conductor?


For discussion purposes I am limiting this to

1) Wilhelm Furtwangler

2) Arturo Toscanini 

3) Bruno Walter

 

feel free to introduce others.  I will be arbitrary and cut off Conductors who worked after the death of Leonard Bernstein.

  Furtwangler and Toscanini died just short of the onset of the stereo era.  They were however recorded with the best technology of the times, and the work of restoration technology of today has done wonders.  Walter recorded until 1962 but perhaps his best work was done in the mono era.

  Walter was renowned for his “humanity” Furtwangler for his near mystical ability to rechannel German/Austrian music, and Toscanini for his finely chiseled intensity

mahler123

@lowrider57 

I have the Music and Arts Brahms Furtwangler set.  Great stuff.  The Second is the most fascinating, if only because we now know that W.F. was slated for execution by the Gestapo after the performance.  Tipped off, possibly by Albert Speer, he escaped while taking his bows during the applause, which M&A preserves…one can hear the puzzlement of the clappers as he doesn’t reappear.

@mahler123 

I'm a big fan of Brahms no. 2, but apparently the performance isn't the whole story on this disc. Thank you for adding the historical details of that night. I didn't know about this. I'll read more about it online. 

Furtwängler was walking a tightrope throughout the Nazi's reign of terror.

For anyone interested, I just came upon this High Definition Tape Transfers website. The reviews are good and there are a fair number of classical and jazz recordings available. Here's the Furtwängler page. https://www.highdeftapetransfers.ca/collections/wilhelm-furtwangler-collection

@goofyfoot 

Nice find. This looks very interesting. I'd like to see (hear) if they were able to improve the dry, lean DG recordings.

I wonder if they're paying for the rights to sell copyrighted material. 

@lowrider57 They're located in Canada so I'd suspect they'd been obligated to pay out royalties. However copyright laws only extend to about fifty years (at least with artwork). As far as DG recordings, I would be a skeptic but who knows? It always seemed odd to me that the Archive Production (a division of DG) pressings were superior to the DG pressings.

I'm looking at buying a DSD download of Bill Evans' 'Waltz for Debbie" and if I like that, then possibly Szell/Strauss. If you order something, then please share your opinion of the quality. You can always reach me direct too. Cheers.