Wilhelm Furtwängler's many recordings of Brahms' First Symphony include performances with the philharmonics of Berlin and Vienna, the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the North German Radio Orchestra of Hamburg, the Festival Orchestra of Lucerne, the Venezuela Orchestra of Caracas, as well as this one, with the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Turin, from a concert on March 7, 1952. While it won't efface memories of Furtwängler's other recordings, it is an incredibly effective and ultimately rousing performance. It gets off ...
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Wilhelm Furtwängler's many recordings of Brahms' First Symphony include performances with the philharmonics of Berlin and Vienna, the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the North German Radio Orchestra of Hamburg, the Festival Orchestra of Lucerne, the Venezuela Orchestra of Caracas, as well as this one, with the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Turin, from a concert on March 7, 1952. While it won't efface memories of Furtwängler's other recordings, it is an incredibly effective and ultimately rousing performance. It gets off to a somewhat rocky start as the Italian orchestra tries to locate the conductor's downbeat, but once it finds it at the start of the Allegro, the musicians fall under his spell, and the remainder of the symphony is as mighty and monumental as one could wish. Radio Symphony Orchestra of Turin does sound like an Italian orchestra; the string tone is leaner and the woodwinds more plangent than a German orchestra's, but Furtwängler's inspirational conducting elicits a powerful...
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