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Beethoven's Coriolan Overture - Furtwangler 1943

Beethoven's 'Coriolan' overture occupies a very specific place among his works. It is the only major piece of Beethoven that ends tragically.
It is superfluous to say Beethoven is not superficial - to put it very mildly. He encapsulates intense struggle, hardship, force, energy, effort, but he is determinedly optimistic. Victory comes only as a result of great effort but it comes - this combination being one of the reasons he has been the most popular of all composers. Beethoven was indeed the last classical composer of the first rank to have an unequivocally optimistic view of the world in the last analysis – later Mendelssohn was also optimistic but he is precisely not a composer of the very first rank. It is merely necessary to compare music being composed by Schubert during the last years of Beethoven’s life to see the comparison.
Perhaps for that reason Beethoven’s Coriolan poses particular problems of interpretation that only the greatest conductors are capable of solving. Outstanding recorded successes for me are Carlos Kleiber (on DVD), Konwitschny, and Klemperer. But Furtwangler’s 1943 recording occupies a place among the pantheon of the greatest recordings of anything. The extraordinary force and violence of the interpretation, combined with Furtwangler’s typical sustaining of the full value of notes, gives the impression of someone implacably crushed. Overwhelming.

Toscanini, Furtwangler and 'Britishness'

As it is in line with majority opinion it is hardly suprising I rate Toscanini and Furtwangler as the greatest of conductors and would only rank Klemperer and Mravinsky in the same premier league (de Sabata and Carlos Kleiber would possibly enter it but there is too little remaining of their output to be comparable).
I therefore do not subscribe to either the 'up with Furtwangler down with Toscanini' or vice versa schools. But in one field Toscanini was absolutely decisively superior - strangely enough it casts light on the attempted political strategy of Gordon Brown and supporters.
The sphere Toscanini was decisively superior in was his political stance. Due to Furtwangler's musical greatness attempts have been made to justify his remaining in Nazi Germany, claiming that he was working for resistance from within or was even a 'hero'. Ths is nonesense. 'Resistance' in Germany via music was an absurd utopia - indeed all the resistance in Nazi Germany, apart from the superb and heroic work done by those who spied for Nazi Germany's enemies, led to nothing - nor was Furtwangler involved in political opposition to the regime. The right stance, in addition to Jewish musicians who were forced to flee, was taken by Erich Kleiber who left the country in protest against the Nazi regime.
As there was no obstacle to Furtwangler leaving, he would merely not have been able to return, Arthur Rubinstein was entirely correct when he said: 'Had Furtwängler been firm in his democratic convictions he would have left Germany'.
Toscanini, after some early slight confusion regarding Mussolini when fascism was a new phenomenon, took a totally clear position. He refused to perform in Nazi Germany, Nazi Austria or fascist Italy. He openly supported the defeat of both his own Italy and Germany in World War II - when Furtwangler's concerts were being broadcast as part an attempt to raise morale among German troops (fortunately scarcely a decisive contribution to the war effort).
What has all this got to do with the attempted political strategy of Gordon Brown and his supporters? They have attempted to make 'Britishness' their political touchstone. But the events referred to above remind us that it is universal human values, not patriotism, that are the highest value. The Germans who took the right choice were those such as Thomas Mann, Erich Kleiber, Marlene Dietrich and others who openly called, and campaigned for, the defeat of their own country in World War II. Those who showed patriotism and directly or indirectly supported the victory of their own country took the wrong choice.
Patriotism in short is not the highest moral ground - universal human values are. The attempt to construct an ideology based on 'Britishness' is wrong for a number of reasons but most decisive of all is that it is not on the highest moral ground. That, among other reasons, is why this attempt to create a 'Britishness' ideology appears intellectually cramped and without adequate purchase.