Two exciting events have occurred over the past several months and let me begin with the auspicious first-ever visit to America by the directors of the Wilhelm Furtwängler Society of Japan. Since the death of the previous president, Mr. Tabuse, two years ago, the Japanese Society has been reaching out more and more to other Societies around the world. Mr. Masayuki Nakamura, who is  my age, has been an inter-national investment banker for Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt for the past 25 years, speaks English with almost no discernible accent as well as German. Mr. Gotaro Kawakami is in his early 70’s and was close to the former president, the aforementioned Mr. Tabuse.
These two gentlemen flew to San Francisco in late August to visit the WFSA and to see how we operate, which meant that they had to visit the interworkings of my garage in Woodside in order to observe exactly how I implement the shipping and handling of all accessory items. They were also fascinated by the WFSA archives – recordings, photos, letters, etc. They were very kind and thoughtful to regale us with various CDs of newly engineered Furtwängler recordings by their Society as well as a very interesting DVD featuring Furtwängler film footage as well as various others of his contem-poraries such as Knappertsbusch, Kleiber, Böhm, Walter, etc.
The good news is that we will continue to nurture and foster a close relationship and regular interaction with this most vital Society dedicated to Furtwängler.
On the new CD release front, Teldec have published a two CD set of the live performance of the Furtwängler Symphony No. 2 with Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra taken from a live concert last December. The performance is as finely recorded as humanly possible and wonderfully played, but this is a piece that will not likely enter the regular repertoire anytime in the foreseeable future. Nonetheless, it is a wonderful testament to the artist Furtwängler who always aspired to be a recognized composer, but who will forever be remembered and revered for his accomplishments on the podium.
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