Artist: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Wiener Philharmoniker, The Philhaarmonia, Wilhelm Furtwängler
Title: Wilhelm Furtwängler: From Gluck to Ravel
Year Of Release: 2023
Label: Praga Digitals
Genre: Classical
Quality: fflac 24bits - 96.0kHz + Booklet
Total Time: 01:18:01
Total Size: 1.36 gb

Tracklist

01. Alceste, Wq. 44: Overture
02. Don Giovanni, K. 527: Overture
03. Anacreon (ou l'Amour fugitive): Overture
04. Rosamunde, Op. 26, D. 797: Entracte No. 3
05. Hungarian Dance No. 1 in G Minor, WoO 1
06. Hungarian Dance No. 3 in F Major, WoO 1
07. Tristan und Isolde, WWV 90, Act III: Prelude
08. Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen: I. Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht
09. Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen: II. Ging heut morgen übers Feld
10. Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen: III. Ich hab' ein glühend Messer
11. Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen: IV. Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz
12. Rapsodie espagnole, M. 54: I. Prélude à la nuit
13. Rapsodie espagnole, M. 54: II. Malagueña
14. Rapsodie espagnole, M. 54: III. Habanera
15. Rapsodie espagnole, M. 54: IV. Feria

On From Gluck to Ravel, Wilhelm Furtwängler leads the Vienna Philharmonic and the Philharmonia Orchestra in a program that travels from Gluck's Alceste of 1767 to Ravelian Spain at the turn of the 20th century - while reserving the heart of his concert for the Germanic trio of Wagner, Brahms and Mahler.

Furtwängler opens (8 March 1954) with the Overture to Gluck’s 1767 opera Alceste, after the tragedy by Euripides. The VPO strings project both a high gloss and a deep, low resonance, while the woodwinds intone with lustrous transparency. Hector Berlioz held a high regard for this score, as had Mozart. The excruciating expressivity of the chromatic line Furtwängler embraces fervently, driving the music forward without smearing the internal lines that provide a layered passion to the progression. No les dark and harmonically stormy, the Overture to Mozart’s Don Giovanni (27 July 1953) bears a sullen gravitas that barely justifies the term “drama giocoso.” The Overture to Cherubini’s 1803 Anakreon had been as much a concert favorite of Willem Mengelberg as to Furtwängler. ˘Furtwängler (11 January 1951) realizes an explosive rendition, vibrant, elastic, and eminently transparent. The polyphony sings, especially given the luster of the VPO strings, winds, and brass. The titanic energy—Mannheim could hardly claim better “rocket” figures—tends to align Cherubini more with Beethoven than with Mozart. ...

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone
Philharmonia Orchestra
Wiener Philharmoniker
Wilhelm Furtwängler, conductor