Introduction
Wilhelm Furtwängler: The Historical, Cultural and Intellectual
Background
Childhood and Youth [1886-1911]
Lübeck and Mannheim [1911-1920]
Furtwängler in the Weimar Republic [1919- 1933]
Furtwängler and the Nazi State I [1933-1935]
Furtwängler in the Nazi State II [1935-1945]
Reflection and Reaction: Furtwängler in the post-war period
[1945-1950]
Furtwängler as Symphonist
'All Greatness is Simplicity' [1951-1954]
Afterword
Appendix 1: Two Furtwängler essays, 'Heinrich Schenker' [1947],
'Hans Pfitzner' [1948]
Appendix 2: Thomas Mann, 'Germany and the Germans' [1945]
Appendix 3: Audio and visual sources
Bibliography
[An] absorbing, but balanced and methodical, appraisal of
Furtwängler as man and musician. The unique aspect of his book is
the detailed attention that is given to the conductor's extensive
writings...a key towards understanding [Wilhelm Furtwängler] place
German music history.
*THE WAGNER JOURNAL*
An innovative approach to this highly controversial conductor whose
career flourished under Nazi rule...a very welcome and insightful
complement to the extant library of Furtwängler biographies.
*GERMAN HISTORY*
Roger Allen's thoroughly researched volume is something subtler and
ultimately perhaps more insightful.
*OPERA*
An astute essay on the highs and lows of German cultural history,
as seen through the eyes and perceived by the actions of the star
conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler...Allen enters this terrain equipped
with a great sense of fairness rarely found in scholarly
studies.
*WAGNERSPECTRUM*
Trace[s] the genesis of the belief system that made Furtwängler
accept the Nazi regime as an unappetizing but tolerable set-up in
which to achieve his cultural aims...Reading Furtwängler's writings
with Allen as a guide illuminates the political undercurrents of
his aesthetics.
*TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT*
Explored through Furtwängler's writings and those of relevant
contemporaries, is the social, intellectual and cultural hinterland
- the 'Germanness' - that shaped his being...There is much that is
interesting here about the nature of German conservatism and
Furtwängler's relationship to it.
*GRAMOPHONE*
This impeccably researched and engagingly written study tackles the
emotive subject from a cultural perspective, shedding fresh light
on how Furtwängler remained (at least in his mind) apolitical
during a period of extreme politicisation.
*BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE*
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