Great Conductors

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 2008

Label: Dreamlife

A compilation of rare newsreel footage. Total disc time: 118 minutes.
Track 1 includes scenes of the destruction and rebuilding of La Scala Milan preceding the excerpt from the concert.
Preceding Track 4 are 0:45 of scenes of Karl Böhm, Furtwängler and others in Salzburg.
Track 9 begins with 0:40 of Goebbels speaking, Nazi salutes, etc. Karl Böhm is not seen on the film, though his name is visible on a shot of the program.
Preceding Track 12 is documentary footage (2:07) about Salzburg in 1937 and 1936, stills of Toscanini and others, Lotte Lehmann speaking in German, Hitler arriving in Salzburg, Nazi salutes, etc. The musical excerpt that follows is from a concert on the eve of Hitler’s birthday, with large swastikas on either side of the stage, Goebbels present, many in uniform, some with medals, some wounded, and at the end Goebbels steps up and shakes Furtwängler’s hand for six seconds.
Track 13 is wrongly dated 1942; Knappertsbusch conducted Beethoven’s 9th on 18 April 1943 to mark Hitler’s birthday; apart from a 4-second view of a swastika in fabric of the Philharmonie, there are no Nazi associations: no views of the whole Philharmonie, none of Goebbels or men in uniform; from a couple of pans from the conductor to the orchestra it is just possible to discern an empty hall behind, and at the end of the performance Knappertsbusch says something emphatic to the leader of the orchestra, both of which suggest it was filmed at a rehearsal, though the conductor and players are in white tie. Similar or related footage is in "Great Conductors - The Golden Era of Germany and Austria" (Dreamlife DLVC 8094).
Track 14 omits the first 50 seconds of this film (external views of the factory, piles of snow, worker’s arriving, and German commentary) which can be seen in the complete version of this Zeit und Bild film in “The Reichsorchester” (Arthaus Musik 101 453).
Preceding Track 15 are 30 seconds of footage showing crowds giving the Nazi salute, Hitler arriving in Bayreuth in 1940, being greeted by Winifred Wagner, and women in tears. In the musical excerpt, the conductor is not seen; it could have been either Furtwängler or Abendroth, both of whom conducted Die Meistersinger at Bayreuth that year.
Track 16 includes footage of Winifred Wagner arriving by train and in attendance at the concert.
(The disc has no barcode.)