---The 4 th of Schumann by Furtwangler is for me by the way the greatest recorded achievement by far over any other interpretation and one of the most fascinating opus written as the 6Th of Beethoven which is a perfect description of Nature as Vivaldi four seasons and here with Schumann we have a perfect description of an agitated soul on the brink of the abyss ...
Only Furtwangler can capture this as a Schumann soul photography, His direction aimed not to the beautiful, the perfect, no more than some other Furtwangler interpretations, it is way too deep and moving to be just beautiful or perfect; the reason why Furtwangler science of musical time put it on the top among any other maestro who capture, if not perfection or beauty but life itself, the beats of the human heart... This time mastery elude many and suspass all as Georgiev suggested speaking about Furtwangler achievement... ...
---The Liszt Christus , so great it is ,put Liszt on the short list of the great composers ever not just one of the greateast pianist ... Dorati version is the best ...Some others may be interesting , i own 4 versions 😊..Bruckner takes notice of the Christus , listen the first symphonic movement almost paradisiac describing Eden as suspended over Christ birth ... Bruckner had his ears opened for the mesmerizing pianist transformed in saint in his retreat reading his partition...
---The fifth of Bruckner....By Celibidache or anyone of the great Brucknerian maestros... ( the musical time mastery of Celi is second only to Furtwangler, Celi is a contemplative who put all work in front of the eternity , Furtwangler is an active man who put all works in his own human time rythm ; then their time and timing mastery are completely opposite) .
All others Bruckner symphonies are more beautiful , as the spontaneous 6 th which i read somewhere he never corrected as he did obsessively for the others; the 7th is the most beautiful symphony ever written with the Beethoven 6th; the 8th the most perfect in all his parts balanced owning some qualities pertaining to all other symphonies he wrote together , the last movement is included second only to the fifth so to speak and if we compared to the 9th where there is no conclusion and which is by far the most dramatic of all Bruckner symphonies with a red sun setting for the last time in the first minutes.....
But for me the 5 th dont rival any of these others in beauty, perfection, spontaneity, and drama ... Why then the 5th is the one i prefer ?
Because of the metaphor i associated immediately with the second listening : the last fugal movement is written as a huge fugue encompassing and resuming perfectly the same movements born in the first three one with the astonishing fugue culminating in the chorale , it remind me as the perfect metaphor for the human life journey till this last memory phase waiting for death and the encounter with God... for me the first three movements describe life as imprevisible but the last describe an understanding and a recapitulation a revisiting of life in his dephts that is unsurpassed because of the last revelation : the God facing waiting moment in the last chord which will be described later in his Te Deum, which work Bruckner in his children faith described as his key to paradise ...
«Noted Bruckner conductor Eugen Jochum wrote in detail about the symphony’s interpretive challenges, noting that, in contrast to the Seventh Symphony, "the climax... is not merely in the last movement but at the very end, in the chorale. ... The first, second and third movements seem almost a... vast preparation. ... The preparatory character applies especially to the first movement [whose] introduction ... is a large-scale foundation... destined to bear the weight of all four movements."[3] As evidence, he detailed the way the introduction’s thematic materials function in later movements, and said the interpreter "must direct everything towards the Finale and its ending... and continually keep something in reserve for the conclusion." »
Bruckner takes notes as i said from the Liszt Christus and go further than Liszt himself ...
I will not speak of Scriabin whom i put beside all the great composers i admired because as Liszt , he transcended piano composition, by a revelation of the creative depth of the cosmos more and more present from his first works till the end ; as Liszt transcended piano composition, by a revelation about the soul tempest and the soul peace.... They are the two supreme masters of the piano together beside Chopin who will never go beyond some limits, too much attached to Bach and traditions in spite of his mastery of expression ...