Birgitta Wollenweber (Piano) and Matthias Wollong (Violin). Wilhelm Furtwängler Violin Sonata No. 1 (1935)
I. Allegro Moderato - 00:00
II. Adagio Solenne - 18:30
III. Moderato - 28:02
IV. Finale - 37:20
1st day of death of Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886–1954) :*Graphics by Schnell :*Ausgabepreis: 40 Pfennig :*First Day of Issue / Erstausgabetag: 17. September 1955 :*Michel-Katalog-Nr: 128 (Berlin) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Wilhelm Furtwängler Violin Sonata No. 2 (1939)
I. Allegro Moderato - 00:00
II. Lento - Andante E Cantabile - 17:50
III. Presto - 32:57
Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886 – 1954), German conductor and composer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
"I try to write simply, grandly, magnificently [...]." It was with these words that Wilhelm Furtwaengler summed up his aims as a composer, and they doubtless also found their analogy in his activity as a conductor. The music world continues to remember him today as a conductor, but as a composer he is hardly known at all. His own view of his circumstances was quite different: "There are many conductors [...] who feel the need to compose and -- so it is said -- produce orchestra leader's music. Things were different with Furtwaengler The boy was writing notes before he could write letters. He himself throughout his life regarded himself primarily as a composer." To be sure, reality suggests a different picture: while Furtwaengler enjoyed unprecedented success as a conductor and in this capacity was one of the most influential personalities in the music life of the German Reich into the 1930s, his extensive oeuvre of more than a hundred opus numbers did not attract wide attention. The two violin sonatas are from his late compositional phase after 1934, when his support of Hindemith made him fall so much out of favor with the Nazis that he suddenly had a lot of time for composition. Even in these small dimensions he lives up to his motto: "Grand and monumental."
