[9/16/2001] Sunday Classics preview: Wait for it! (continued)

This photo of Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886-1954) looks to be from around the time of our recording of the Egmont Overture (1931).


As I said, we have two recordings of the Egmont Overture, made nearly 30 years apart.

BEETHOVEN: Incidental Music for Goethe's Egmont, Op. 84: Overture

Berlin Philharmonic, Wilhelm Furtwängler, cond. Brunswick, recorded 1931 (digital transfer by F. Reeder)
Berlin Philharmonic, André Cluytens, cond. EMI, recorded c1959

NOW AS TO WHY WE'RE LISTENING TO EGMONT . . .

I would think that the title of the post has given it away. I'm thinking at the moment about music that, while of top quality through and through, builds to a special climax that threatens to become listeners' reason for listening to the piece. Which is how I came to think of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony.

The first performance I thought of to use today turns out to be one we've already heard, David Zinman's with the Baltimore Symphony. You'd think the least I could do would be to offer a different performance, so I'll do that too.

TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36:
iv. Finale: Allegro con fuoco

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, David Zinman, cond. Telarc, recorded Nov. 20-25, 1989


IN TOMORROW'S SUNDAY CLASSICS POST

There's no reason why you should be able to guess where we're headed tomorrow, but then again, there's no reason why you should be surprised to learn that it's Antonin Dvorák's Eighth Symphony.


RETURN TO THE BEGINNING OF THE POST

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