Lilly Dieckmann
Letters to her mother
April 1911
After the four cherished weeks with all of you in our beloved hometown, Dresden, I arrived yesterday evening in Lübeck. Many flowers and welcome-greetings received me and in every one of them was the same thing to be read: the fanatic excitement about the election of a new conductor. In the present case, the matter has been narrowed down to two particular candidates: The name of one is Siegel, recommended by Abendroth and is therefore considered to be the front-runner. The other is named Furtwängler and is submitted by Ida Boy-Ed. After all I heard, this Furtwängler must be a very brilliant personality, besides having a handsome, graceful, almost Parsifalian appearance. Not a man of the world such as Abendroth but quiet and absorbed in his own inner world. How happy would I be for Frau Boy-Ed if Furtwängler should turn out to be the winner.
The die is cast - Wilhelm Furtwängler is elected. There is a festive air in the city. "How splendid! Furtwängler!" These three words say it all. Now we have something to look forward to all summer long - the new musical era that will begin in October under Furtwängler.
* Furtwängler was chosen on April 13
September 1911
(...) When he starts talking, one realizes immediately what a fine mind and well-rounded education he has, and when he sits at the piano, the entire grand soul of the artist opens up. He played Beethoven's opus 109 and the impression was thoroughly stirring. It was as if he created it himself at that very moment.
October 1911
Furtwängler is already my total darling, a somewhat bristly, prickly one - like a hedgehog - but too first-rate and brilliant. I've just come back from the dress rehearsal for the first symphony concert. My high-pitched expectations are not disappointed. Furtwängler has interested and captivated me to the highest degree from the first to the last moment. An evocative power goes out from him that affects both the orchestra and the audience equally. The outward mannerisms of Furtwängler are still indescribably comic. He flails around with his arms like a windmill and distorts his face into the most horrible grimaces. His legs have their singular movements, so that the whole appears to be in an uproar without equal. But all is forgotten and forgiven because of what one's ears get to hear.
December 1911
Yesterday we were with Frau Boy-Ed at the popular music-concert. There we took as much delight in Furtwängler's talent as in his movements. At one time, in the heat of battle, his tongue even shot out several inches from his mouth. However, he conducted the Tristan Prelude with such a degree of ripeness and longing, so mournful and stirring, that one wouldn't have noticed his tongue at all even if he'd been beating time with it!
* The Tristan Prelude is missing in our programmes! It could be a bis...
January 1912
Saturday morning was a symphony concert rehearsal; in the evening, the concert. Furtwängler conducted the Tchaikovsky 5th. He called on me right after the rehearsal, to find out whether the tempos had been correct. He had never heard the symphony before, and therefore had the feeling that he hadn't prepared himself enough. "One really has to know everything by heart", he said, "or one bungles around hogtied."
He has started going to Hamburg to hear famous guest conductors. He was not impressed by Schuh and Weingartner. The latter he found awfully superficial.
* on December 16 1911
** Ernst von Schuh (1846-1914) is remembered as the musical director of the Dresden Staatskapelle with which he premiered Richard Strauss' operas Salomé (1905), Elektra (1909) and Rosenkavalier (1911)
February 1912
Yesterday, Furtwängler came along to Nikisch's concert in Hamburg. Since I knew his disparaging judgment of Schuh and Weingartner, I actually had little hope that Nikisch would fulfil his exacting demands. The concert was ravishingly beautiful and to my great joy, I saw Furtwängler applauding with such sheer enthusiasm as I wouldn't even have thought possible with him. He showed up promptly backstage afterwards and Nikisch - having already been made aware of our young genius by me - warmly extended his hands to him and expressed his joy to finally meet him, "the oft-mentioned friend of his young lady-friend". However Furtwängler couldn't bring himself to say a word and only looked with a somewhat embarrassed smile down at the shorter Nikisch. But when Nikisch, in his charming manner, asked whether he would give him the pleasure of dining with us after the concert, Furtwängler only blurted out an abrupt, "Of course".
Nikisch's conducting had really impressed him, "the only one from whom I can learn, even though I'll do it differently".
February 1912
Yesterday there was another superb symphony concert. Also his movements have started to become smooth and methodical. His left hand is indescribable as if a butterfly allows its wings to flutter. Moreover, his face often takes on an almost otherworldly expression that seems illuminated by an inner light. One stands fully captivated under the imprint of this gifted artist. Nevertheless, sometimes one gets suddenly yanked back to earth, horrible grimaces distort his face that just a moment before had been smiling in ecstasy.
April 1912
(...) What a peculiar, distinctive man he is, our dear Willi! His knowledge, his cultural refinement, the depth of his thinking and the brilliance of his nature have made him an extraordinary personality.
December 1912
Was this a symphony concert, as if Heaven came down to earth! Brahms E minor and Schubert's Unfinished. We were transported in ecstasy. Oh, this Furtwängler, he is divine and we in Lübeck are the most enviable people to be able to call him "ours".
* In fact the concert took place on January 4 1913...!
April 1913
Furtwängler conducted the 9th. The city and the papers are still full of the grand experience. He conducted it by heart and with such eminent grandeur and profundity that the response was unanimous - they'd never before heard anything so grandly stirring.
* The ninth was performed on April 26.
December 1913
(...) a great event was the "Meistersinger" under Furtwängler. What he was able to draw out of the soloists and choir was astounding. The purely orchestral portions were the best of all. The Prelude, the end of the second act, the beginning of the third were indescribably beautiful, poetic and freshly realized.
* It was the evening of November 20.
March 1914
On Saturday, we experienced what may well be the impressive high-point of the winter - Bruckner's Eighth presented by Furtwängler in such a unique and distinguished way. This divine work! After the first hour we were all as if in a dream and didn't really want to wake up from this most profound experience. Hardly an eye stayed dry during the Adagio. Szanto often could hardly even read the notes, so waterlogged were his eyes with emotion. Furtwängler's magnificent head shone like the Holy Grail in a sublime light.
* The concert took place on March 28.
April 1914
Furtwängler and Szanto gave three Beethoven-Sonata evenings during the last few weeks. Yesterday was the last concert - wonderful.
* these three soirées were held on April 7, 14 and 20, whereas the season's last symphonic concert was given on April 25.
January 1915
Our entire being is still borne by the incomparable, heightened impression of the evening before: Furtwängler - Eroica! A heavenly gift of grace, to have experienced this! The most grand and powerful that one could ever hear! Nikisch excited me, Furtwängler shook us through and through. He is a giant, who has freshly re-created this work. he is the greatest conductor of Beethoven alive - perhaps the greatest who has ever lived.
* This concert took place on January 2.
February 1915
Furtwängler's conception of the "Fidelio" was ideal, of a beauty and sanctity aglow with compassion and holiness. In his hands, in his noble features lay all the sorrow suffered, the agonics endured. The curtain must have risen ten times with the ever-increasing applause until Furtwängler finally appeared.
* In fact, this performance took place on March 23!
Mars 1915
Now fate has dealt us a blow. Furtwängler is leaving us and going to Mannheim.
April 1915
Yesterday was the last symphony concert - Brahms's C minor, Beethoven's Eighth. Heavenly but so sad. Many people had tears in their eyes. Frau Boy-Ed was undone. It's an entire life-chapter that we have lived with this wonderful artist and which now irretrievably comes to an end. Frau Boy-Ed was so right: we who were close to him are really losing a piece of our lives with Furtwängler's departure. He gave us so much to ponder, to cherish, to enjoy. Therefore he became a part of us.
* It is the concert of April 10
