Beethoven: Symphony No 5 / Egmont Overture (with overtures by Rossini & Weber) [rec 1926-1935]

"All in all, then, this is a worthwhile addition to a very useful series. Moreover, at its bargain price it makes more widely available the means to explore and gain a deeper understanding of the development of one of the most fascinating conductors - whether from a personal, intellectual or musical point of view - of the first half of the twentieth century."
(MusicWeb August 2008)

Volume 2 of the Naxos edition of Wilhelm Furtwängler's pre-1940s recordings begins with a weighty account of Beethoven's Egmont Overture followed by a galvanizing performance of the Symphony No. 5, Furtwängler's first recording of the work. This is presented complete for the first time: a few bars of music went unrecorded during the transition from the first to the second side of the third movement and are replaced here by the inclusion of the corresponding bars from Furtwängler's 1937 remake with the same orchestra. In the Overture to Weber's Der Freischütz, Furtwängler's volatile and 'free' conducting is remarkably convincing.