Wilhelm Furtwängler just may have been the greatest conductor ever of Brahms’ First Symphony. Certainly, he brought to the work an intensity and, in the finale, an almost transcendental sense of triumph unmatched by any other conductor’s vision of the work. His best performance, fortunately preserved in excellent sound for its period, is the 1951 concert (available from Tahra) he gave with the NDR (North German Radio) Symphony Orchestra. It’s an incredible experience and no one who loves this music should miss it. This 1953 performance is less well played, and comes from a distinctly inferior sound source. Although broadly the same interpretation as 1951, it adds nothing to our understanding of Furtwängler’s way with this music, and there is substantial discoloration of instrumental timbres, particularly the strings, which makes listening somewhat uncomfortable. The Stravinsky coupling is simply dreadful. The strings are seldom, if ever, together whenever the rhythms get the slightest bit tricky, and the intonation of the solo trombone and oboes positively shames the players. I’ve heard community orchestras play this piece more cleanly and idiomatically. Pass on this one.
