Great Conductors of the Third Reich: Art in the Service of Evil

'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,--that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'This DVD will prove that Keats was mistaken.Some of the selections on this DVD are among the most beautiful and exciting performances of some of the greatest music ever written. Yet this beauty did not produce truth nor did it generate goodness.That the Nazis treasured Beethoven and used the Ninth Symphony, with its history of celebrating freedom of the spirit, as one of their signature pieces, created such anguish in me that it was hard to watch and listen. And to see one of the most gifted and imaginative conductors of all time, Wilhelm Furtwangler, shaking hands with Josef Goebbels at a concert in honor of Hitler's birthday, made me want to cry.Yet it is important that music lovers watch this DVD. It is of the greatest importance that we never confuse beauty with truth, or beauty with goodness, or talent with morality, or intelligence with wisdom. These performances, especially the Beethoven, show that beauty can be used in the service of evil, talent can be hijacked by the most vile murderers, intelligence and culture perverted by the wicked.All my life I have had a problem with Wagner. He was the single most horrible person to produce sublime beauty whom I know. What does one do with this?One friend of mine refused to buy Karajan recordings until after he died. I spent decades immersed in opera before I was willing to see my first performance of The Ring (which actually swept me away, to my great ambivalent dismay).Some of these conductors were active and enthusiastic participants in the Nazi regime. Others convinced themselves that they were serving "art" and not the regime, but saw themselves contributing to the propaganda of the Nazis nevertheless.The question of the relationship between beauty and goodness is hard to resolve. I guess I'm going to have to struggle with it for the rest of my life. Perhaps others will start a thread on this that will shed some light on the perplexing problem this DVD generates.

Many of the other reviewers have been a bit harsh in claiming this is nothing but a collection of old documentary films. Some claim that it is not a documentary at all. It is actually an invaluable record that provides information on items of historical interest. It offers us the opportunity to see:the enthusiastic and gesticulative conducting technique of the great Wilhelm Furtwaenglerthe quality of German video and sound recording at a time when such techniques were still in their infancy, or at least their childhoodThe Nazi government's belief that art and culture should be brought to the people--even in the workplaceAn example of this is the film of Goebbels in the AEG factory, watching Furtwaengler conduct, surrounded by an audience of recuperating combat soldiers and men and women factory workers, sitting on or alongside boilers and large engines to watch the concert. Workers listen in thoughtful attention--or is it just that the Nazis put together the film to put across this image? The crux is that they thought it good to show government bringing art to the masses.Of course there is the ubiquitous film of Hitler arriving at Bayreuth, greeted warmly by Winifred Wagner. We might even notice that the pressing crowds of deliriously enthusiastic young people, dazzled by a Hitler promising reform, change, and hope, are not all that different from today's enthralled throngs hoping for a glimpse of a current charismatic leader. That's another reason this is a valuable recording of pictures and sounds from the past.

Although I was told (in the fine print) that this was documentary footage of conductors of the Third Reich, I had naively assumed - from the gaudy words "Art in the Service of Evil" - there would be some narration, some explanation, some background of what compelled great musicians to stay in the Nazi world and serve it with their music, etc. However, there was none of that. Except for one brief newsreel segment, this DVD was nothing but a pasted together compilation of conductors in the Third Reich playing music. That's it - they just played music - no explanation, no background, no voiceover, no subtitles, nothing. Literally, you simply watched newsreel footage of a conductor waving his baton in front of an orchestra and playing the music. Well, that told me nothing at all. (By the way, what WAS it with the Third Reich's obsession with 'Der Meistersinger'? That was played over and over again on this DVD as if there was nothing else available.)This DVD is useless, a waste of money. If you want a true documentary of musicians in the Third Reich, don't waste your money on this - instead, buy "The Reichsorchester". THAT is a superb DVD of the Berlin Philharmonic during the Third Reich with interviews of musicians, newsreels, reading of diaries, reminiscences, facts, etc., that gives you an honest and thorough understanding of what it was like. But this DVD is a waste of money!

I was actally puzzled by this DVD. On one hand everything what is presented hereis a treasure for any collector of historical recordings. The question is whatfrom this music is actually available. Here are mostly fragments too short fora listener to be able to get the picture of the conductor. I am pretty sure thata little more effort in research could have produced better results.Therefore, it looks to me that the selection was not done by a good, informed musician/musicologist. There definitely can be found better and longer (!)clips, esp. those by Furtwängler or Knappertsbusch (i am not saying these here are not valuable). On the whole,For the price this DVD looks almost like a rip-off.

Il DVD in parola - di fattura americana ed intitolato "Grandi direttori del Terzo Reich: Arte al servizio del Male" - non è in effetti un documentario, bensì - come si direbbe oggi - una "compilation" contenente alcuni spezzoni, dieci per la precisione, di brani (o selezioni di brani) diretti da alcuni dei più importanti Maestri nel periodo nazista (le registrazioni spaziano dal 1933 al '43 in piena guerra mondiale).Così - a prescindere dalle considerazioni moralistiche sviluppate nel DVD e nelle note di accompagnamento, che francamente lasciano il tempo che trovano, anche per il diverso coinvolgimento dei singoli direttori nel confronti del regime, che a mio parere vanno comunque valutati unicamente sotto il profilo artistico - il DVD alterna esecuzioni compiute (l'ouverture del Guglielmo Tell diretta da Max von Schillings, il preludio dei Meistersinger diretti sia da Leo Blech, che da Karl Bohm e da Wilhelm Furtwangler, il finale della "Nona" di Beethoven diretta da Hans Knappertsbusch) a spezzoni francamente poco significativi (un solo minuto dedicato all'"Incompiuta" di Schubert diretta da Clemens Krauss, un altro minuto all'ennesima esecuzione del preludio di Meistersinger in un'edizione attribuita a Furtwaengler o forse ad Hermann Abendroth) o interessanti solo sotto il profilo storico (una visita di Hitler a Salisburgo, la sfilata dei nazisti a Parigi e la successiva esecuzione - in tutto due minuti! - dell'immancabile preludio dei Maestri Cantori da parte di Karajan al Palais Chaillot di Parigi, il finale della "Nona" diretta da Furtwangler nella storica esecuzione del 19 aprile 1942, in occasione della celebrazione del compleanno di Hitler e alla presenza di Goebbels che, al termine dell'esecuzione, si complimenta con il direttore).Dunque, un potpourri abbastanza sconclusionato e ripetitivo, da cui peraltro si possono trarre interessanti spunti soprattutto in termini di conoscenza di direttori meno noti (soprattutto von Schillings e Blech) e della tecnica direttoriale allora in uso: in proposito è particolarmente illuminante la lezione di Furtwaengler nel preludio di Meistersinger diretto davanti alle maestranze dell'AEG nel febbraio '42, ove viene evidenziato il bel gesto tecnico - con la destra stacca il tempo, la mano sinistra serve a dare gli attacchi - cui purtroppo nei tempi attuali non è più dato di assistere.

Ce DVD comprend quelques moments intéressants mais me semble globalement plutôt ennuyeux. L'ouverture intégrale de Guillaume Tell par Schillings est trop longue et ce n'est pas terriblement bien filmé. Je ne parle même pas du petit bout de celle des "Meistersinger" dirigée par Karajan qui est sans doute extraite d'un film d'actualités de l'époque. Je m'attendais à un scénario un peu plus "travaillé" et abouti qui aurait mis en évidence cette forte interaction entre le 3° Reich et ces quelques maestros d'exception, bien que nazis eux-mêmes ou sympathisants dévoués (Furtwangler, Karajan, Knappertsbusch, Böhm, Schillings, etc auxquels on aurait pu ajouter Heger, Tietjen, Krauss et bien d'autres surement qu'on retrouvera pratiquement tous aux commandes après 1945 ). Un scenario qui aurait pu montrer toute l'importance que jouaient la musique et ses grands interprètes au service de l'idéologie malfaisante du Führer. Un coup d'épée dans l'eau. Ce film reste donc à faire.

This dvd ought to be re-titled "Great Conductors of the 3rd Reich conduct the overture to Wagner's Meistersinger" - it is a bit repetative workwise. There are also two snippets from the finale of Beethoven's ninth symphony. If you can get past the limited repertoire, then the short films are fascinating. The sound is extraordinary for the period, and most of the picture quality is fine. Most interesting is a live recording from the stage of the Berlin Opera of Hans Sachs' monologue from the end of Meistersinger with Wilhelm Rode as Sachs.It is easy with CDs from the period to divorce the political from the artistic, but this dvd brings home the bizarre "marriage" of the ideaology of the period with the arts. An almost obscene image that I will not forget is Gobbels and assorted cohorts placidly watching a performance of Beethoven's 9th with the choir singing "Alle Menschen werdern Bruder" (All men [will] become brothers) - surely the irony could not have been lost, even by them.

Interessantissimo, non tanto per il valore musicale dei filmati presentati, quanto per quello documentario. Per esempio, è veramente da antologia il brano che dà un saggio dello stile di direzione di Max von Schillings. Bisogna solo stare attenti a non farsi suggestionare da svastiche, stendardi e facce di gerarchi hitleriani, lasciandosi andare a giudizi sommari e catalogando senz'altro tutti i direttori presentati come ignobili nazisti: la realtà dei fatti, come è dimostrato ad esempio dalla grande complessità, dal punto di vista storico ed etico, del caso Furtwängler - sul quale non a caso sono sati scritti volumi e volumi -, non è così semplice.

Etant un peu sceptique quant au fonctionnement de ce DVD zone 1 , j'ai été agréablement surprise de recevoir en fait un produit toutes zones , région code 0 format 5; si cela a été une initiative du vendeur , elle fut la bienvenue, car ce produit n'existe pas en zone 2.Donc , impeccable .