Furtwangler Wartime Recordings New SACD Box Set From The Berlin Philharmonic

Today, I received a newly remastered 22 SACD box set of Furtwangler's wartime recordings, newly remastered (in 2018) from the original Magnetophon broadcast tapes. The set is called "The Radio Recordings" and is available from the Berlin Philharmonic for about $240 including shipping to the US. Shipment takes about 1 1/2 weeks from Germany to the US via DHL and the US Post Office....

New: the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Furtwängler edition


As a Furtwangler collector, I've bought every supposed "improved remaster" from various reissue labels, including the now very valuable Japanese Deutsche Grammophon 33 CD collection (which was made from copies of copies of the original Magnetophon tapes), the various Tahra reissues, the Music and Arts reissues, and the superior reissues from the French Furtwangler Society.

This set "beats 'em all".... The quality and dynamic range that they were able to extract from these tapes is amazing, the commentary in the 182 page hard cover book is enlightening and clarifies the history of how these recordings were made and for what purposes. The book gives a pretty thorough history of each radio concert and the historical context. It of course speaks to why Furtwangler stayed in Germany during the war...

What's great about the audio quality of this new set is that no attempt at noise reduction or adding fake concert hall echo has been made which has been a constant problem on earlier issues of this material.

If you're a Furtwangler collector, this set is a must...

 

Thanks, I’ve been keeping an eye out for reviews. Happy to read a positive impression.

 

Great! Did you get the DVD as well?

 

Member @hvbias posted a first impression here: Classical "Mega" CD Box Sets and was less enthusiastic - one of his problems was that he heard added "ambience effects".

 

The french Furtwangler society mentions in their review this "Ambient Stereo" effect too.

 

I hate it when old mono recordings are manipulated to sound like some kind of stereo. It's rewriting history and a fraud in my view.

 

I just received my copy. The presentation etc. is deluxe gorgeous, with very interesting essays. I have listened to several CDs and the sound is spectacular: few allowances need to be made. I am a comparative Furtwangler novice, so cannot speak as an expert on previous incarnations of this material, but what I am hearing is thrilling. Most importantly I feel like I can really hear, and feel, without making allowances for poor sound, what was special and unique about Furtwangler's performances. I cannot wait to hear the rest of this box.

 

What do you think of the "ambient stereo" filter that was used?

 

If it's there it's very subtle. But then again, I do not have a problem with labels like Pristine. Anything that makes the music more accessible is fine in my book, although I understand the counter-argument. Pristine does an amazing job -- we are light years away from the ghastly "pressed for stereo" LPs of the 60s and 70s. The fidelity of the sound in this BPO box is breathtaking.

I've now listened to more of this set and it is extraordinary. A window into a unique time in history and a unique musician. A mandatory purchase.

 

The use of the "ambient stereo" filter was confirmed in another post.

Good to hear you like the set. A mandatory purchase it may be in your view, but I am not going to get it; the "ambient stereo" thing is a big no-no for me. Call me a purist, but, as i said before, in my opinion mono should not be manipulated to make it sound like some kind of stereo.

 

I completely understand your disliking of the ambient effect, but you are missing out on the extraordinary fidelity of first generation sources. I heard nothing "fake" in the sound. What I did hear was a tangible sense of being present in the hall, and a level of dynamic vitality that often gets flattened out in older recordings. There are many times when you feel the music grabbing you by the throat, so to speak. It's riveting. The accompanying book is fascinating too, with wonderful photographs. Maybe you can find a way to sample first. I hope so -- this is too significant a release for any fan of Furtwangler to pass up. I would go so far as to say this one of the most important releases of all time, period. I can't stop thinking about the quality of the music-making I hear on these discs.

 

If I may ask, what is on the DVD? (that is, on the edition that includes the bonus DVD.)

Probably going to just go for the regular 22 disc edition (but would still like to know what is on the DVD.)

Are there any domestic (US) sources for this box or is it just best to order this from the BPR site?

 

Since I ordered from the BPO Eshop I also received the DVD. 14min with interviews with musicians and some footage known and unknown (the latter from Cairo). Interesting but short.

 

I really wish I could afford this set. Normally I recoil at any "stereo" processing, but listening with good headphones to the promo video linked in the first post I don't find it bad at all. In fact I could easily ignore it and just get into the music.

I don't understand why remasters from the first-gen tapes aren't more readily available. Good on them for doing it, but the price is unfortunately just too steep.

dan c

 

It's not just the ambience stereo effect that bothers me, which I personally find more than just mild. But I do know some of these performances from other CDs.

I don't care for the mild noise reduction either, as I posted in another forum's thread the slight "deadness" between notes does not sound high fidelity. If they had left off the ambience effect and the NR the music would sound more natural, the natural space between the instruments would mean it sounds like... an actual orchestra and not an attempted modern recreation of one.

Odd that Timo Hagermeister replied to my first email saying they did use ambient stereo to make the sound more modern (I heard this effect before emailing them) but when pressed on the noise reduction he did not respond.

 

Members of this forum will be interested to know that there will be a full review and discussion of this box set on BBC Radio 3's Record Review, this Saturday (March 16th) beginning at 9am London time. The program will be available to stream for four weeks thereafter. Here is the program's home page:

BBC Radio 3 - Record Review

 

I am crossposting this from a comment I posted to a "Mega Box" thread, where there has been some discussion of this set.

I just ran my own spectral analysis on a few of the SACDs, and there is significant signal above 10k with a brickwall above 21.7k. Here is a slice of the Aeschbacher/Furtwängler/Berlin Brahms Second Piano Concerto.



And yes, the set gets demerits for the addition of faux-stereo "ambience" to replicate pseudo-concert-hall presence, although
1) it is far less obtrusive than similar recordings issued by Pristine (and others);
2) it is not an obstacle to listening on a good full-range speaker system (one of my golden-eared "purist" biz partners was shocked that she slightly preferred what she heard in "stereo" as opposed to the mono switch - she loved the overall sound both ways); and
3) both Furtwängler and the primary engineer on these recordings, Friedrich Schnapp, preferred distant recording mic placement, which makes the addition of subtle "ambience" far less conspicuous.

A listen to separate works suggests that the "ambience" has been calibrated to each concert.

Additionally, comparison with several previous issues (from Deutsche Grammophon, Melodiya, and releases on Music and Arts and related labels) show improvement ranging from more than subtle to jaw-droppingly dramatic.

My bottom line: this set is a must for Furtwängler enthusiasts AND listeners with an interest in the evolution of recording tech.

For their part, DRA should do a little arm-twisting and persuade the parties-that-be in Moscow to liberate other tapes in their possession, especially magnetophon recording from Bayreuth, Munich (including important recordings conducted by Hans Rosbaud and Hans Knappertsbusch), and Berlin (especially the experimental stereo recordings). Partnerships with the Berlin Philharmonic, Bayreuth Festspiele and Bayerischen Rundfunks might well yield significant artistic treasures.

 

Thanks! Surely an indispensable set.

 

The noise reduction I was referring to in my post 15 had nothing to do with the spectrograph, I was going by this part purely by listening:

"I don't care for the mild noise reduction either, as I posted in another forum's thread the slight "deadness" between notes does not sound high fidelity"

And the ambience stereo effect is far from subtle to my ears. We just value different things in historical recordings, and that's fine.