Wilhelm Furtwängler has left us with 112 live concert recordings. Many connoisseurs consider that his most unforgettable performance was that of 7 October 1944 in the Berlin Beethoven-Saal, attended by Hermann Göring. The programme featured Bruckner’s last (unfinished) symphony, and closed with the Adagio from Symphony No.7. This slow movement is heavy with Wagnerian Weltschmerz. It was written in the weeks preceding Wagner’s death in February 1883, and when news reached Bruckner that Wagner had indeed died in Venice, he added the deeply poignant coda as an explicit tribute. This original recording represents Furtwängler's most inspired performance and is a compelling testimony to his legacy. It took Furtwängler to recognise and recreate an absolutely perfect depiction of Bruckner's tortured mind and, by extension, an entire world on the brink of collapse.

Recorded live, Berlin, Radio DDR, 7 October 1944 (Symphony no.9), 7 April 1942 (Adagio from Symphony no.7)