First, some full disclosure: I’ve been a Wilhelm Furtwängler fanboy since my high school years.

I had discovered the then-“historic” recordings of Furtwängler – from, at the time, just over twenty years earlier at the very latest, which says a lot about what “historic” meant just over a decade into the Stereophonic Era! Both EMI (specifically, Seraphim Records in the US, although imported European and even Japanese pressings were already showing up at the then-newly-opened Berkshire Record Outlet) and Deutsche Grammophon were reissuing studio and live recordings – and despite the often astringent sound, I found the performances captivating (the discovery of these recordings also acted as a catalyst for my overall interest in vintage recordings).  Starting in my college years, I also started tracking down “unofficial” releases from labels such as Recital Records (now Music & Arts) and Fonit Cetra, and while the sound varied from awful to quite good, I was never disappointed by the musicianship.

Critics have long argued that Furtwängler’s live performances were superior to his studio efforts, but I disagree. Each group of recordings has its virtues; the studio recordings tend to emphasize the music’s tonal beauty while the live recordings tend to greater intensity, ferocity, and near-improvisatory moments – but both groups also reveal Furtwängler’s large-scale, organic, arguably “Schenkerian” approach to interpretation (and yes, Furtwängler was a pupil of Heinrich Schenker).

A few months ago, German indie label Audite issued a twelve-CD collection of the complete surviving RIAS archive of Furtwängler / Berlin Philharmonic recordings (as it turns out, thankfully almost every performance and studio recording made by RIAS), plus a bonus disc of Furtwängler speaking about the role of the artist and the art of musical interpretation.

Every selection is transferred (the vast majority if not all for the first time) from “urbanden” – original RIAS tape recordings made over a seven year period from May 25, 1947 (the second night of the maestro’s post-“de-Nazification” return to the podium in Germany) to May 23, 1954 (less than half a year before his death).

The producers of the present set have claimed the set includes the premiere release of Wolfgang Fortner’s Violin Concerto with soloist Gerhard Taschner – but I own the (alleged) same performance on a Drabinghaus & Grimm CD issued some years ago.

I’m over halfway through the set, though I am not listening in disc order. I own most of the recordings in the set already, and have been able to compare a number of those recordings to the new transfers – and am pleased to confirm that every one of them is improved in varying degrees, mostly quite dramatic.

It was inevitable that Furtwängler and RIAS would program a number of works more than once over the seven-year period documented in this collection – Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos.3, 5 and 6 and Brahms’ Symphony No.3 all get two go-rounds, and the differences in detail and emphasis can be startling. The quality of the performances is variable, though generally very good, but as with many live performances there are a number of serious clinkers (and a pretty serious early entrance by the winds in the Mendelssohn Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture).

But in listening so far, the one trait that emerges consistently is Furtwängler’s uncanny talent for both allowing a work to unfold and keeping the parts united as an edifying whole.

Highlights of the set include Bruckner’s Symphony No.8 (arguably Furtwängler’s most supercharged surviving Bruckner performance), Schubert’s Symphony No.9 (a far more freewheeling approach than that taken in his deservedly acclaimed Deutsche Grammophon studio recording), the lesser-known Hindemith works, the 1947 all-Beethoven concert and 1952  Eroica, and the theatrical “bleeding chunks” of Wagner.

If you’re looking for an introduction to Furtwängler’s art, this set is probably not the way to go — pick up DG’s studio Schubert Symphony No.9, Tahra’s new transfer of the February 10, 1952 concert performance of Brahms Symphony No.1, EMI’s Wagner 2-fer and the live “wartime” Beethoven Symphony 2-fer on Music & Arts.

If you’re already a fan, though, you should strongly consider this insanely low-priced set (look around and you will pay less than five dollars a disc), even if you own the lion’s share of these recordings already – the sonic improvement is that good!

Edition Wilhelm Furtwängler – The complete RIAS recordings

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No.6 in F major “Pastoral”, Op.68
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No.5 in c minor, Op.67
Felix Mendelssohn: Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture, in E major Op.21
Ludwig van Beethoven: Concerto for Violin in D major, Op.61¹
Johann Sebastian Bach: Suite for Orchestra No.3 in D major, BWV 1068
Franz Schubert: Symphony No.8 in b minor “Unfinished”, D759
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No.4 in e minor, Op.98
Anton Bruckner: Symphony No.8 in c minor, WAB 108
Robert Schumann: Manfred, Op.115 – Overture in E-flat minor
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No.3 in F major, Op.90
Wolfgang Fortner: Concerto for Violin²
Richard Wagner: Götterdämmerung – Siegfried’s Funeral Music
Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg – Act 1 Prelude
George Frideric Handel: Concerti grossi (12), Op.6 – No.10 in d minor, HWV 328
Johannes Brahms: Variations on a theme by Haydn in B-flat major “Sankt Antonius Chorale”, Op.56a
Paul Hindemith: Concerto for Orchestra, Op.38
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No.3 in E-flat major “Eroica”, Op.55
Christoph W. Gluck: Alceste – Overture
George Frideric Handel: Concerti grossi (12), Op.6 – No.5 in D major, HWV 323
Carl Maria von Weber: Der Freischütz, J 277 – Overture
Paul Hindemith: Symphony “Die Harmonie der Welt”
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No.3 in E-flat major “Eroica”, Op.55
Franz Schubert: Rosamunde, D797 – Overture (D644)
Boris Blacher: Concertante Music, Op.10
Franz Schubert: Symphony No.8 in b minor “Unfinished”, D759
Franz Schubert: Symphony No.9 in C major “Great”, D944
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No.3 in F major, Op.90
Richard Strauss: Don Juan, Op.20
Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde – Prelude and Liebestod
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No.6 in F major “Pastoral”, Op.68
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No.5 in c minor, Op.67
Bonus disc! Furtwängler on the art of interpretation

Berlin Philharmonic
¹ Yehudi Menuhin, violin
² Gerhard Taschner, violin
Wilhelm Furtwängler, conductor

Recorded 1947-1954 by RIAS
Ludger Böckenhoff, remastering

Artistic impact: 7-10 (avg. 9)
Sound quality: 5-8 (avg. 7)

Audtie 21.403 (CD)