Wilhelm Furtwängler may have become one of the greatest conductors of the first half of the 20th century, but as a teenager his musical aspirations were focused firmly on becoming a composer. That ambition faded in his 20s and 30s as his success as a conductor increased, and it wasn’t until the 1930s, when he was in his late 40s, that Fürtwängler returned to composition, perhaps as an escape from the ever worsening political situation in Germany and Austria, and the pressures that the Nazis placed upon him.
From then until his death in 1954, he produced a succession of large-scale works, the most significant of which were three symphonies. The Second Symphony, which Fürtwängler began in January 1945, immediately after taking refuge from the Nazis in Switzerland, is the most massive of them and regarded as his finest achievement; Neeme Järvi’s performance with the Estonian orchestra, which, while recognising the work’s massiveness, never seems unnecessarily slow, lasts 74 minutes.
Yet it’s a strange, problematic work, easier to admire than to like, and built from an amalgam of Romantic voices from Schumann to Richard Strauss with Bruckner and Brahms featuring most prominently. From moment to moment the music is pleasant enough, but without ever becoming truly memorable; themes tend to move in predictable, stepwise fashion and developments are worked out at pedantic length.
Järvi’s recording joins versions by Barenboim, Jochum and Fürtwängler himself already in the catalogue; if it’s a work that carries real curiosity value, it’s one that few are likely to want to hear very often.
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