ベートーヴェン: 交響曲第9番～ヒトラー生誕前夜祭ライヴ

フルトヴェングラー没後50年を記念して、”幻の音源”が初出CD化！
宣伝省ゲッペルスの企画によるヒトラー生誕前夜祭のライヴ録音となります。演奏前の拍手から演奏後の拍手及びドイツラジオによるアナウンス（ゲッペルスによって企画されたヒットラーの生誕前夜祭がフルトヴェングラー指揮及び上記のキャストによって行われた　他）までが、カット無しで収録されています。アセテート盤からの復刻にて、聴きづらい部分がございますことを予めご承知下さい。
演奏は振幅の大きい、素晴らしい演奏です。フルトヴェングラーの第9といえば、その壮大なスケールと深遠なる精神性、迫力満点のダイナミズムと生命感といった要素が横溢していますが、ちょうど40年代初頭くらいから彼の”第9スタイル”が確立されたと言えるでしょう。絶頂のベルリン・フィルによる一糸乱れぬ演奏も素晴らしい(ライヴならではのキズも当然ありますが)。ブルーノ・キッテル合唱団による歌声もオケと見事に調和しており、最高潮のフィナーレは一聴の価値有りです。所謂、ヒトラーの誕生祝賀コンサートという独特な雰囲気の中、行われた歴史的ライヴ音源のCD化であり、クラシック・ファン、フルトヴェングラー・ファンの方々のは注目の1枚です。

There are arguably greater recordings in existence of Wilhelm Furtwangler conducting Beethoven's Ninth Symphony: the searing 1937 in London, the celebratory 1951 in Bayreuth, the serene 1954 in Lucerne. But all Furtwangler's other recordings of the Ninth were essentially inspired re-creations of the same ecstatic conception: the Ninth as the supreme musical embodiment of humanity's highest and loftiest spirituality. But while certainly inspired, Furtwangler's Ninth from April 19, 1942, in Berlin, is anything but ecstatic, much less high or lofty, and surely not humane or spiritual. The result of the conductor's having been forced by Goebbels into performing the work for Hitler and the Nazi high command on the eve of the Fuhrer's birthday, Furtwangler's 1942 Ninth is the nemesis of all that is good and true and holy. It is a performance that denies Beethoven's joyful brotherhood under a loving God and instead hymns the Nazis with diabolical fugues and demonic choruses climaxing in a coda that hurls the whole edifice into the infernal abyss. It is one of the most deeply frightening performances of anything ever recorded. There have been dozens of releases of this recording on compact disc and their quality has varied from almost unlistenable Italian pirates to nearly transparent Japanese remasterings. This release is almost unlistenable in the climaxes but otherwise a reasonable representation of the original recording. What distinguishes this release from all others is that it is much longer: it includes the applause before and after the performances, the pauses between movements, and the German radio host back-announcing the performance. Thus, this is the first complete recording of the Nazi response to Furtwangler's performance. They greeted him with enthusiastic applause, remained raptly silent between movements, and again after the end before bursting into rapturous applause. It is one of the most profoundly horrifying sounds ever recorded.