Five and the Fascists

The internationally distinguished conductors - Bruno Walter, Arturo Toscanini, Otto Klemperer, Erich Kleiber and Wilhelm Furtwangler, who are now ranked among the greatest of the 20th century, are at a celebratory banquet in Berlin in the summer of 1929.

Berlin was a vibrant European centre and attracted world-class orchestral conductors who premiered some of the most avant garde productions in Europe. But tensions around freedom of expression became heightened as reactionary forces began and there were organised protests against opera and theatre.

The 1929 Berlin festival marked the end of an epoch - not only did it feature the German maestros Klemperer, Walter, Kleiber and Furtwangler, but it also attracted the entire company of La Scala from Milan under Toscanini.

These five figures conductors all reacted strongly against totalitarianism and in the 1930s they found themselves in conflict with European fascism. Four of them sought artistic freedom denied them by totalitarianism, but Furtwangler stayed on in Nazi Germany, prompting questions about his political loyalties that still divide musicians, critics and fans today.

Robert Giddings tells their story through their music and some of the gems in the BBC archive, including interviews with Lotte Lehmann, Wagner’s daughter Friedland, Sir Adrian Boult, George Solti and many other significant figures in the European post-war music world.