Wilhelm Furtwängler was born in Schöneberg (now a district of Berlin) in 1886, but spent most of his childhood in Munich, where his father, an archaeologist, taught at the university. He received a musical education from an early age, and soon became obsessed with the works of Beethoven – a lifelong fascination. Furtwängler considered himself to be a composer, and learned to conduct principally to be able to promote his own works.

Everyone else saw him as an incredibly talented conductor, but as a composer? – not so much. It is, however, his own individual approach that underscores his entire career – his reputation as a conductor was built on the re-interpretation of each score he conducted, a principle far removed from the then more usual rigid adherence to performance tradition. His whole career was built on his belief in the sanctity of the German artistic tradition – not only of music but of literature and philosophy. Furtwängler rose to the most important conductorships available, replacing Richard Strauss at the Staatskapelle Berlin in 1920, and then, following the sudden death of Arthur Nikisch, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic. Through the 1930s and ‘40s, his career was defined by his opposition to Nazism, and the determination of the regime to use his international reputation as propaganda to promote their cause. The best known of his three symphonies, the second was composed in 1945–46 whilst he was self-exiled in Switzerland.