Fuhrer's Favourites

Jenny · 232198. Mon Nov 19, 2007 2:41 pm

Interesting article in The Times here.

Although Hitler championed composers like Wagner and forbade the performing of works by Jewish and Russian composers, he secretly listened to them himself.

A hundred gramophone records have turned up in the attic of 86 year-old Lev Besymenski, a former Soviet intelligence officer. They are labelled ‘Föhrerhauptquartier’, the Föhrer’s headquarters” and include well-worn works by Tchaikovsky, Borodin and Rachmaninov. He apparently found them in Hitler's Chancellery in Berlin in May 1945, and kept quiet about them for fear of being accused of looting.

Despite taking piano lessons as a child, Hitler apparently had no musical ability. His surgeon noted that he always whistled out of tune. However, he loved to listen to recordings as a distraction.

The Fuhrer’s favourites were (not sure how they arrived at this list as 'favourites' though):

1 Piano sonatas, Opus 78 and 90, Beethoven
2 Wagner’s overture to The Flying Dutchman by the Bayreuth Orchestra, conducted by Heinz Tietjen
3 Russian arias, including the death in Boris Godunov, by Mussorgsky, sung by the Russian bass Fyodor Shalyapin
4 Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, with the Berlin State Opera Orchestra, soloist Bronislaw Huberman
5 Mozart Piano Sonata No 8 in A minor with Artur Schnabel

Jenny · 232200. Mon Nov 19, 2007 2:42 pm

Hitler's championing of the talents of Leni Riefenstahl began when he admired her as an actress in a film called The Blue Light.