i cannot resist to post that...
«Furtwängler has always been Bruckner’s great protagonist. In 1942, the Telefunken firm persuaded Furtwängler to experiment with improvements in recording technique. Having consented, he opted for the famous Adagio from the 7th symphony, and later for Gluck’s Alceste Overture, in order to verify, as he said himself, whether the microphones were capable of restoring the breadth of his orchestra, and particularly the famous double basses of Berlin.
The results were amazing. This interpretation of Bruckner by Furtwängler is the slowest and yet the most sustained with its striking tension. Once again the tragic element and the grandeur of the speech are unmatched. It is indeed a recording for a desert island, happily restored to the delight of music lovers everywhere, to be kept and cherished for a lifetime.
Ironically, its tragic grandeur did not deter the Nazis from playing this recording on Radio Berlin to announce Hitler’s death, long after Furtwängler had fled Germany. Suffice it to say simply that no man, however great, or a fortiori vile, is worthy of the dimensions of this work.»
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