The Devil's Music Master: The Controversial Life and Career of Wilhelm Furtwangler

541 Pages·1992·30.92 MB·English

by  Sam H. Shirakawa

SAM H. S H I R A K A WA
THEDEVILS
MUSIC MASTER
From 1922 until his death in 1954, Wil-
helm Furtwangler was the foremost cul-
tural music figure of the German-speak-
ing world, conductor of both the Berlin
and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras. But
a cloud still hangs over his reputation, de-
spite his undeniable brilliance as a mu-
sician, because of a fatal and tragic deci-
sion. Wilhelm Furtwangler remained in
Germany when thousands of intellec-
tuals and artists fled after the Nazis seized
power in 1933. His decision to stay be-
hind earned him lasting condemnation as
a Nazi collaborator—"The Devil's Music
Master." Decades after his death, Furt-
wangler remains for many not only the
greatest but also the most controversial
musical personality of our time.
In The Devil's Music Master, Sam H.
Shirakawa forges the first full-length and
comprehensive biography of Furtwangler.
He surveys Furtwangler's formative years
as a difficult but brilliant prodigy, his rise
to pre-eminence as Germany's leading
conductor, and his development as a mu-
sician, composer, and thinker. Shirakawa
also reviews the rich recorded legacy Furt-
wangler documented throughout his
forty-year career—such as the legendary
Tristan with Kirsten Flagstad and the fa-
mous performances of Beethoven's Ninth
Symphony in 1942 and 1951.
Equally important, Shirakawa goes
backstage and behind the lines to explore
how the Nazis seized control of the arts
and how Furtwangler single-handedly
tried to prevent such evil characters as
Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and
Luftwaffe Chief Hermann Goring from
annihilating Germany's musical life. He
shows how Furtwangler, far from being
a toady to the Nazis, stood up openly
against Hitler and Himmler—at enor-
mous personal risk—to salvage the mu-
sical traditions of Bach, Mozart, and Bee-
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thoven. Shirakawa also presents moving
and overwhelming evidence of Furtwang-
ler's astonishing efforts to save the lives
of Jews and other persecuted individuals
trapped in Nazi Germany—only to be
proscribed at the end of the war and
nearly framed as a war criminal.
But there was more to Furtwangler than
his politics, or even his music, and we
come to know this extraordinary man as
a reluctant composer, a prolific essayist
• and diary keeper, a loyal friend, a formi-
dable enemy when crossed, and an incor-
rigible philanderer. Numerous musical
luminaries share their memories of Furt-
wangler to round out this vivid portrait.
Based on dozens of interviews and re-
search in numerous documents, letters,
and diaries, many of them previously un-
published, The Devil's Music Master is an
in-depth look at the life and times of a
unique personality whose fatal flaw lay in
his uncompromising belief that music
and art must be kept apart from politics,
a conviction that transformed him into a
tragic figure.
About the Author
Sam H. Shirakawa is a writer and film-
maker.
Jacket design by Nora Wertz
The
Devil's
Music
Master
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The
Devil's
Music
Master
The Controversial
life and Career
of Wilhelm
Furtwangler
Sam H. Shimkawa
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York \ Oxford \ 1992
Oxford University Press
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Copyright © 1992 by Sam H. Shirakawa.
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.,
200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shirakawa, Sam H.
The devil's music master : the controversial life and career of Wilhelm
Furtwangler / Sam H. Shirakawa.
p. cm. Includes index.
ISBN 0-19-506508-5
1. Furtwangler, Wilhelm, 1886-1954. 2. Conductors (Music)—
Germany—Biography. I. Title.
ML422.F92S53 1992
784.2'092—dc20
[Bl 91-25994
The following page is regarded as an extension of the copyright page.
98765432
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
The author gratefully acknowledges considerations granted by the following sources:
Elisabeth Furtwäangler for permission to quote excerpts from her late husband's writings and to
quote from her own memoir, Uber Wilhelm Furtwdngler, third edition, Brockhaus Verlag, Wies-
baden, 1986.
The I.H.T. Corporation, Washington, for permission to quote excerpts from reviews by Lawrence
Gilman in the New York Herald-Tribune, 5 and 24 January 1925 and 11 February 1927. All rights
reserved.
Quartet Books Ltd., London, for permission to quote excerpts from Notebooks, by Wilhelm Furt-
wangler, translated by Shaun Whiteside, 1990.
S. Fischer Verlag, GmbH, Frankfurt-am-Main, for permission to quote an unpublished letter by
Thomas Mann, 1 July 1947; excerpts from an unpublished lecture, "Germany and the Germans,"
delivered at the Library of Congress on 29 May 1945; and excerpts from Brief'e, 1894-1962, by Bruno
Walter, 1969.
The New York Times Company, New York, for permission to quote passages from reviews and arti-
cles from 1925, 1926, 1927, 1931, 1936, and 1937.
The Bruno Walter Foundation for permission to quote portions of unpublished letters by Bruno
Walter from 1946 and 1948.
Farrar, Strauss, & Giroux, Inc., New York, for permission to quote excerpts from Hiker's Secret
Conversations, translated by Norman Cameron and R. H. Stevens, 1953.
Edition Spanenberg, Miinchen, for permission to quote a letter by Erika Mann, 31 May 1947.
Doubleday, New York, for permission to quote an excerpt from Cellist, by Gregor Piatigorsky,
1965.
Herbert A. Strauss and the Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, for permission to quote an
excerpt from The Muses Free Hiker, 1983.
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, for permission to quote excerpts from Theme and Variations, by
Bruno Walter, translated by James A. Galston, 1946; and from Understanding Toscanini, by Joseph
Horowitz, 1986.
HarperCollins Publishers, New York, for permission to quote excerpts from Heritage of Fire, by
Friedelind Wagner and Page Cooper, 1945.
Lippincott, Philadelphia, and Harper Row, New York, for permission to quote excerpts from
Unheard Witness, by Ernst HanfstMngl, 1957.
The Metropolitan Opera Association, New York, for permission to quote excerpts of letters by
Rudolf Bing, 1952.
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\n memory of my parents