Although Furtwängler’s recorded legacy is extensive, recordings of concertos are relatively few. This 1949 recording of Brahms’ Violin Concerto is notable for the legendary conductor’s highly expressive accompaniment.

In the Hungarian Dances, Furtwängler’s innate understanding of their idiom brings a variety of subtleties and inflexions that make this recording particularly memorable.

In Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture his structural strength of line, together with a natural fluidity of tempo underpinning the thematic imagery, strikes a perfect balance.

Last but not least, the heart-warming performance of Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll demonstrates once again that even when Furtwängler conducted the lighter works of those composers whose output could be considered predominantly serious, he always brought the same questing spirit to search out the soul of the music.

MENDELSSOHN: The Hebrides ‘Fingal’s Cave’ – Overture, Op. 26
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Recorded at the Brahmssaal, Musikverein, Vienna, 15th February 1949

BRAHMS: Hungarian Dances, WoO1
No. 1 in G minor; No. 2 in D minor; No. 3 in F major
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Recorded at the Großer Saal, Musikverein, Vienna, 4th April 1949

BRAHMS: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77
I Allegro ma non troppo; II Adagio; III Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace
Yehudi Menuhin (violin), Lucerne Festival Orchestra
Recorded at the Kunsthaus, Lucerne, 29th-31st August 1949

WAGNER: Siegfried Idyll
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Recorded at the Brahmssaal, Musikverein, Vienna, 16th-17th February 1949