Details from Warner Japan
Unprecedented: Warner (HMV + Telefunken) and Universal (DG + Decca) cooperated to assemble this 55 CD box of Wilhelm Furtwanglers complete studio recordings on all labels: HMV (EMI) = 37 CDs + 8 live CDs ||| TELEFUNKEN = 1 CD ||| POLYDOR (78rpm predecessor of DG) = 4 CDs ||| DG = 2-½ CDs ||| DECCA = 1-½ CDs.
Eight CDs are duplicated from last years 34 CD box Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon and Decca.
With one exception, everything, even the DG recordings, was newly remastered in 24-bit/192kHz from the original tapes by Art & Son Studio, Annecy. CD35 was remastered in 2016, but only at a mere 24-bit/96kHz.
There is one addition to Furtwanglers discography: The third movement Elegy from Tchaikovskys Serenade for Strings (CD54). In 1950 he recorded movements 2, 3 & 4, but only 2 & 4 were issued on LP (CD24). It seems like a dumb idea to put movement 3 on a separate disc - it would have fit perfectly between movements 2 and 4 on CD24. The first movement was not recorded.
By limiting themselves to studio recordings, Warner has issued a box with enormous gaps: No Beethoven Symphonies 2 or 8, No Brahms Symphonies 3 or 4, No Bruckner Symphonies at all (except a single movement recorded in 1942).
The live performances in this new box were special occasions, recorded by EMI engineers, and approved by Furtwangler for possible release, though none were published during his lifetime. The first four CDs were recorded during the conductor and orchestra’s 1937 visit to London, part of the King George VI coronation festivities. CD5 = Beethoven Ninth Symphony in Queen’s Hall with the Berlin Philharmonic and the London Philharmonic Choir (1937) / CD6-8 = Wagner Ring with Flagstad and Melchior at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (the London Philharmonic is the pit band). The entire Ring was recorded, but only Die Walkure Act 3 and two hours of Gotterdammerung survive (1937) / CD28 = Beethoven Ninth Symphony at the 1951 postwar re-opening of the Bayreuth Festival / CD41-43 = Bach St. Matthew Passion at the 1954 Salzburg Easter Festival. Furtwangler may have sensed his own mortality. He died a few months later / CD54 = Schubert Symphony 8: Vienna Philharmonic live on tour in Copenhagen (not approved for release by Furtwangler, not sure why it’s here).
