Word: ngler
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...generally thought of as orthodox conductors, interested in Brahms' Brahms rather than their Brahms. Yet how different these interpretations are. Böhm almost seems schizoid about these essentially well-adjusted symphonies, as though he could not make up his mind whether the dreamy, expansive Furtwängler or the lean, surging Toscanini were right. No such problems with Haitink. His Brahms bristles with muscle and the knowledge of a certain destination...
Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen (assorted soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of the RAI-Radiotelevisione Italiana, Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting; Seraphim, 19 LPs, $53.98). With Beethoven and Brahms, Furtwängler could be infuriatingly eccentric. When he was conducting Wagner, though, his stately, expansive, analytic style produced performances that were ingeniously congruent with the composer's convoluted purpose. Drawn from a 1953 series of radio broadcasts from Rome in mono sound that ranges from only dim to adequate, this is a Ring that every Wagnerian will at least want to hear, and probably own as a low-priced...
Furtwängler was totally different -a very Germanic, mystic type who managed to impose his almost religious view of music on the players. This resulted in absolutely superb performances too. During the '20s and '30s, Furtwängler and Toscanini were the greatest conductors. Now Georg Solti and Herbert von Karajan are the greatest, and in somewhat the same way, with Solti comparable to Toscanini and Karajan to Furtwangler...