After Furtwängler’s enthusiastic championing of Hessenberg’s Concerto for Orchestra, the great maestro kept in close contact with the young composer, offering him advice and encouragement and being watchful of his artistic development. When Furtwängler saw the score of the composer’s Second Symphony four years later, he became even more impressed than before, and expressed an overwhelming interest not only in presenting the world premiere of this work, but also in conducting it “everywhere I have an opportunity of doing so – primarily, that is, in Berlin and Vienna.” The bulk of the composition for this work was completed in 1943, and the premiere by Furtwängler and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra took place, in spite of wartime difficulties, on December 10, 1944, and the program repeated the next day, at the Admiralspalast in Berlin. The critical reception was overwhelming in praise of the new work. The performance was recorded for broadcast, but the tape has never surfaced over the years and is presumed lost. Sadly, Furtwängler’s intention of further performances of the Symphony never came to fruition. The work received a second interpretation by Otto Winkler in 1947 in Koblenz. Besides these, the work’s publisher Schott has no record of other performances, although it notes that its records from that period are far from being complete. Therefore, this masterpiece may have lain dormant for more than half a century.
Read accounts of the work by...