Every once in a while I have the urge to talk about my favorite conductor, Wilhelm Furtwängler. I love what Daniel Barenboim said about him: “He understood that music is not about statements or about being. It’s about becoming. It’s not the statement of a phrase that is really important, but how you get there and …
Learning to be human
I had a few hours of newsletter work to do this afternoon, and I chose to do it while listening to the four symphonies of Johannes Brahms, performed by the greatest conductor of all, Wilhelm Furtwängler, in live recordings made in 1948-1952. Brahms, the most humane of the major composers, and Furtwängler, the most humane of all the …
Remembering Wilhelm Furtwängler on the anniversary of his death
On this day (November 30th) Wilhelm Furtwängler died 60 years ago (1954). He was, in my opinion and in the opinion of many others, the greatest conductor of the 20th century - which pretty much means the greatest of all time, since the 20th century was THE century of great symphony conductors. He was especially known …
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