Monday, August 6, 2007

HITLER'S MUSIC COLLECTION REVEALED

Hitler's record collection from his Berlin bunker (UK Telegraph)
A collection of gramaphone records from Adolf Hitler's headquarters in Berlin has appeared, giving an insight into the Führer's musical tastes. The record collection was in possession of Russian military intelligence officer Lew Besymenski, who examined the Führerbunker in Berlin following Germany's defeat in 1945.

Mr Besymenski kept his haul secret but after he died in June this year his daughter revealed the find to German magazine Der Spiegel.

Surprisingly, the music Hitler and his entourage listened to featured Russian composers, including Tchaikovsky, as well as a Jewish musician who fled Germany in 1933. Here is the list in full:

  • Richard Wagner - ouverture of the Flying Dutchman performed by the orchestra of the Bayreuth Festival House
  • Modest Mussorgski - aria "Death of Boris Godunoff", sung by the Russian bass Fjodor Schaljapin
  • Pyotr Tchaikovsky - one entire album with the star violinist Bronislaw Hubermann as soloist
  • Alexander Borodin
  • Sergei Rachmaninov
  • Austrian musician/singer Artur Schnabel (who left Germany in 1933 as he was Jewish)

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