Beethoven, Finale, Ninth Symphony, Berlin 1942, Fuertwaengler

"The concern that my art was misused for propaganda had to yield to the concern that German music be given to the German people by its own musicians. Does Thomas Mann really believe that in “the Germany of Himmler” one should not be permitted to play Beethoven? Could he not realize, that people never needed more to hear Beethoven and his message of freedom and human love, than these Germans, who had to live under Himmler’s terror? I do not regret having stayed with them." Wilhelm Fuertwaengler.