This evening Furtwangler and the Vienna Philharmonic in Brahms no 1 from Edinburgh.  The transmission was not very good, and I am not naturally attuned to Furtwangler, he is the Thomas Aquinas of conductors; yet I am so profoundly impressed that I forget I am not profoundly moved.  There is such searching honesty in his reading; everything comes out - including the resemblance in the last movement not only to the theme which we all realise, but the key bugle orchestration of the 2nd Brahms appearance so reminiscent of the key bugle tenor variation of the 9th.  And somehow he made the opening of the allegretto approach, like cheerful saints coming to meet a new one; and then how honest, how comprehending, his management of the close of that movement.