Word: ngler
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...managed to stay in the midst of Nazi musical politics until her escape from Germany before the war. Miss Geissmar was secretary of the Berlin Philharmonic. Her book gives an intimate picture of one of Nazi Germany's two world-famed musical figures, Conductor Wilhelm FurtwĠngler (the other: Composer Richard Strauss...
Furtwängler is generally rated among the first half-dozen maestros of the world. In Germany, where great music has long ranked among the important responsibilities of the state, he occupied a position as essential as that of a cabinet minister. When the Nazis took over, FurtwĠngler, as head of the state-supported Berlin Philharmonic and Berlin Opera, became one of their knottier problems. He detested the Nazis. But if they forced his resignation, Germany would lose one of her few remaining claims to cultural prestige. So they began seducing him into the Nazi game...
...Politics. FurtwĠngler was a man of idealism, deeply patriotic, with a mystical absorption in German culture. He believed that the Nazi movement was a troublesome but temporary phenomenon, and was anxious to do what he could to preserve German musical standards. He fancied that in staying in Germany, rather than going into exile, he would find ways, with art as his shield, of opposing the Nazis...
FurtwĠngler managed to delay the "Aryanization" of the Berlin Philharmonic for many months. But Nazi authorities, through legal technicalities, delayed the payment of the orchestra's state subsidy, reduced it to near bankruptcy. When FurtwĠngler issued a statement that art could not flourish under political domination, Goebbels cracked: "Politics, too, is an art, and what is more, the highest and most comprehensive art of all." An interview between FurtwĠngler and Hitler produced two hours of shouting and led to one interesting aftermath: when FurtwĠngler refused to conduct at Nürnberg...
Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6 ("Pathétique") (Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra; Victor: 12 sides; $6.50). Most neurotic of symphonies, straightforwardly performed in one of the most brilliant of all orchestra recordings. Made in London several years ago; no royalties go to Germany...