Gustav Heinrich Ernst Martin Wilhelm Furtwängler is better known as one of the greatest conductors of the twentieth century than as a composer. His decision to remain in Germany after 1933, when others from Germany took refuge abroad, led to subsequent controversy and accusations of complicity with the National Socialist régime that he had always in fact opposed. Furtwängler’s compositions include several pieces of expansive chamber music, a piano concerto, and three symphonies. His symphonies continue and extend the earlier Austro-German tradition of Brahms and Bruckner and were written largely during the Hitler period, when there were less demands on him as a conductor.
