LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI - Decca Recordings
1965-1972
CD1
Transcriptions
1 Johann Sebastian
BACH: Toccata and Fugue in
D minor
2 BACH:
Prelude in E flat minor
3 BACH:
Geistliches Lied: Mein Jesu (Schemelli’s
Gesangbuch)
4 BACH:
Chorale prelude: Wir glauben all’ an
einen Gott ("Giant Fugue")
5 BACH:
Chorale from Easter cantata
6 BACH:
Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor
7 BYRD:
Pavan, The Earl of Salisbury and Galliard
(after Francis Tregian)
8 Jeremiah
CLARKE:
Trumpet voluntary (Howard Snell solo
trumpet)
9 Franz
SCHUBERT:
Moment musical No.3 in F minor
10 Fryderyk
CHOPIN:
Mazurka in A minor, op.17 no.4
11 Pyotr
Ilyich
TCHAIKOVSKY:
Chant sans paroles
12 Henri
DUPARC:
Extase (David Gray solo horn)
13 Sergei
RACHMANINOV:
Prelude in C sharp minor, op.3 no.2
14 Claude
DEBUSSY:
La Cathédrale engloutie
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra [1]-[6],
[13]
London Symphony Orchestra [7]-[12]
New Philharmonia Orchestra [14]
CD 2
Pyotr Ilyich
TCHAIKOVSKY
Symphony No.5 in E minor, op.64
1 I Andante – Allegro con anima
2 II Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza
Alan Civil (horn solo)
3 III Valse: Allegro moderato
4 IV Finale: Andante maestoso – Allegro
vivace
5 SCRIABIN:
Le Poème de l’extase, op.54
New Philharmonia Orchestra [1]-[4]
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra [5]
CD 3
César FRANCK
Symphony in D minor
1 I Lento — Allegro non troppo
2 II Allegretto
3 III Allegro non troppo
Edward
ELGAR
Variations on an Original Theme, op.36
"Enigma"
4 Theme (Andante)
5 I C.A.E. (Andante)
6 II H.D.S.-P. (Allegro)
7 III R.B.T. (Allegretto)
8 IV W.M.B. (Allegro di molto)
9 V R.P.A. (Moderato)
10 VI Ysobel (Andantino)
11 VII Troyte (Presto)
12 VIII W.N. (Allegretto)
13 IX Nimrod (Adagio)
14 X Dorabella: Intermezzo (Allegretto)
15 XI G.R.S. (Allegro di molto)
16 XII B.G.N. (Andante)
17 XIII *** Romanza (Moderato)
18 XIV E.D.U. Finale (Allegro) 5:15
Hilversum Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
[1]-[3]
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra [4]-[18]
CD 4
Hector
BERLIOZ
Symphonie fantastique
1 I Rêveries — Passions (Largo
— Allegro agitato)
2 II Un bal (Valse: Allegro non troppo)
3 III Scène aux champs (Adagio)
4 IV Marche au supplice (Allegretto
non troppo)
5 V Songe d’une nuit de Sabbat (Larghetto
— Allegro)
6 La Damnation de Faust — Danse
des sylphes
Maurice
RAVEL
7 Fanfare — L’éventail
de Jeanne
Daphnis et Chloë — Suite No.2
8 I Lever de jour
9 II Pantomime
10 III Danse générale
New Philharmonia Orchestra [1]-[5]
London Symphony Orchestra [6], [8]-[10]
London Symphony Chorus [8]-[10]
Hilversum Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
[7]
CD 5
Igor STRAVINSKY
L’Oiseau de feu — Suite
1 I Introduction
2 II Dance of the Firebird
3 III Round dance of the Princesses
4 IV Infernal dance of King Kastchei
5 V Lullaby
6 VI Finale
Claude
DEBUSSY
7 Prélude à l’après-midi
d’un faune
La Mer
8 I De l’aube a midi sur la mer
9 II Jeux de vagues
10 III Dialogue du vent et de la mer
Olivier
MESSIAEN
L’Ascension — Quatre méditations
symphoniques pour orchestre
11 I Majesté du Christ demandant
sa gloire à son Père (Très
lent et majestueux)
12 II Alléluias sereins d’une
âme qui désire le ciel
(Bien modéré, clair)
13 III Alléluia sur la trompette,
alléluia sur la cymbale (Vif
et joyeux)
14 IV Prière du Christ montant
vers son Père (Extrêmement
lent, ému et solennel)
London Symphony Orchestra
DECCA ORIGINAL MASTERS LIMITED EDITION
475 145-2 [5CDs: 78.14+69.48+75.33+65.13+80.38]
The charisma and daring
of Leopold Stokowski lives on to this
day. Although born in London on 18 April
1882 he was the least ‘British’ of conductors.
I doubt he learnt his flamboyance at
the Royal College of Music yet that
is where he studied. His first significant
orchestra was the Cincinnati where he
was conductor for three brief years
(1909-12). His next stop was Philadelphia
where he put down roots for twenty-four
years. The Philadelphia made Stokowski
and Stokowski made Philadelphia. The
Festival of Britain saw Stokowski’s
return to conducting in the UK for the
first time since 1912. Although something
of a gypsy after his stormy departure
from Philadelphia Stokowski founded
the American Symphony Orchestra and
worked often with youth orchestras across
the world. His gorgeous OTT orchestral
transcriptions became a ‘signature’
for the man. He continued his advocacy
of twentieth century music as he had
to the point of dictatorial teaching
while at Philadelphia. In his final
years he recorded often in London for
Desmar, Sony, Everest and Decca. This
set enshrines his Phase Four work for
Decca - a garish technique for a conductor
himself an advocate of gaudy colours
and the intoxication of opulent sound.
Lushly coloured and
often retouched music-making was the
order of the day with Stokowski. This
generously packed box of five discs
(each in its own card sleeve) offers
his trademark approach, unshakeably
confident and belligerently gripping.
If you have been reared on sane, refined,
neatly sustained readings of the great
classics by Haitink, Böhm, Davis,
Jochum or Boult the day will come when
you will want an adventure; that is
what each of these recordings is. Stokowski
may phrase and balance things is a surprising
way. He might sometimes offend you with
his adjustments and re-colourings but
he will not bore you. You get the impression
that every single iota of each score
has been calculated, freshly envisioned
and then let loose in spontaneity and
often awe.
The first disc starts
with his ‘signature’ the Toccata and
Fugue in D minor which glows and smiles,
glares and gibbers, rocks and roars.
Perhaps hear this first to make sure
that you want the set as a whole. If
you like the approach you will like
the rest.
This is a section of
the Stokowski legacy that was much derided
because of its zoomed-in Phase Four
recording technology. This entailed
intimate microphone placement and a
twenty channel mixer desk. The result
was highly detailed, not natural but
having plenty of physical, sensual and
emotional impact. Reviewers at the time
were either dismissive or uncomfortable
with the technology although one wonders
whether much would have been said if
Decca had not branded the line so prominently
and made Phase Four a unique selling
point. It must have had some perceived
success if only because EMI Classics
responded with its own short-lived Studio
Four line.
Decca's engineers certainly
piled the tension on to those analogue
tapes and I hear some congestion in
the fire-hose pressure of the sobbing
massed violin writing in the Corale
from Jesus Christus, Gottes Sohn
(*tr.5 CD1). The conductor’s orchestration
of the BWV582 Passacaglia and Fugue
is at first so dark that you could
swear Balakirev's Thamar might
have had a hand in the proceedings.
Stokowski seems, in this work, to be
building a bridge across the golden
firmament such is its majestic awe and
regal pacing.
The Byrd Pavan is
likewise gorged with romantic feeling
although Howard Snell's trumpet is not
as lithe and smoothly produced as it
might have been on a better day. Stokowski
is much more at ease in the tremblingly
gracious Schubert Moment Musical
No. 3, given a decidedly
Straussian lilt. This might even have
passed muster as to a Beecham lollipop.
The Chopin Mazurka in A Op.17 No.
4 is coloured as if a companion
on the one hand to Ravel's Pavane
and on the other to Debussy's Faune.
Tchaikovsky's Chants sans parole
Op. 49 No. 6 sounds authentically
Tchaikovskian perhaps because Stokowski's
sympathies are much closer to Tchaikovsky’s
in the first place. It is however the
least memorable of these small pieces.
The Duparc Extase has David Gray's
solo horn in the place of the singer's
line. It is al done with yearning sweetness
seemingly irradiated with a golden glow.
After so much serenity and light the
orchestration of Rachmaninov's Prelude
in C sharp minor Op. 3 No. 2 is
a welcome contrast for its fantastic
atmosphere painting - what would he
have made of the Rachmaninov Etudes-Tableaux
(of course Respighi another super-colourist
beat Stokowski to it with five of those)
or to the Medtner Skazki. Stokowski
here shows lessons learnt from the Rachmaninov
works he championed such as the Third
Symphony as well as ladling on the starry
treatment. Hearing his way with La
Cathédrale Engloutie one
wishes he might have taken some recorded
interest in Griffes’ Pleasure Dome
- the read-across is clear although
the Hollywood light is also evident.
The deep bell tones are touched in iron
and golden glory by the brass and by
the tense trembling of the massed violins.
The Fifth Symphony
of Tchaikovsky does not have the instantaneous
and totally sustained grip of Monteux
with the LSO in Vienna but is not far
behind. Stokowski is quite understated
at first - almost modest - much the
same as he is in the finale. Gurgling
woodwind figures are flattered by the
Phase Four process which is presumably
little more than calculated spotlighting
and level adjustment. The recording
is very good and the New Philharmonia
are on form to match. This is not as
febrile as Mravinsky in the same work
but it is full of feeling as the stately
andante cantabile complete with
Alan Civil's solo French Horn, tells
us. By the way I loved Decca's long
long pause between the end of the third
movement and the start of the finale
which has a satisfyingly squat growl
to the brass. There are eccentric moments
as in the mannered brass adumbration
at 9.45 in the finale and 12.40 where
Stokowski adds a ‘yip’ to the brass
that I have never previously heard.
In fact the presence and accentuation
of the brass sometimes suggests an approach
like a high cholesterol Capriccio
Italien on steroids.
We change orchestra
and locale to the Czech Phil and to
Prague's luxuriantly detailed Rudolfinum
for a Stokowski speciality: Scriabin's
Poem of Ecstasy. Stokowski and
Decca assure us of transparently intimate
focus on the many soloistic lines. This
is a performance that swoons and vapours.
There the priapic trumpet is heard crying
in defiant and heaven-clawing pride
- as Flecker said - riding secure the
cruel skies. Such a pity that the Czech
Phil's first trumpet, who injects a
trace of central European 'bray', remains
uncredited - who was it? Very special!
What on earth would Stokowski have made
of Bax's voluptuous Spring Fire or
indeed Szymanowski's diaphanously scored
Harnasie or Song of the Night.
The third CD is allocated
to the Franck Symphony and Elgar's Enigma.
The Franck is given a fine performance
with stunning detail communicated in
a work that conventionally rather opaque
and congested. The textures sound almost
Ravel-like in the central movement,
such is Stokowski's sense of time and
place. Delicacy of touch gives ground
to the sweep and intoxication of the
finale with its fine tune spun and re-spun.
Franck spends that tune like a child
in a sweet shop all in one uninhibited
splurge and then lets it run back and
forth through the allegro non troppo
alongside reminiscences of the other
two movements.
The Czech Phil are
unlikely partners for the Stokowski
Enigma. However this goes tenderly
if not absolutely tidily in H.D.S-P.
The Ysobel movement is taken
more rapidly than usual - it feels breathless.
Hearing the rapid ascent of the brass
in Troyte at 00.25 I regret that
Stokowski did not have a go at the Elgar
Second Symphony while he was in Prague.
The Romanza goes with such a
steady lilt that it loses direction.
The EDU finale has plenty of
spit and polish - not band-master stuff
but fiery. The grand theme for ‘our
hero’ (how much more palatable than
Strauss in Heldenleben) portrays
a believable Elgar who can laugh, and
grieve as well as take eager delight
(tr. 18 2.01) in his creative powers.
Stokowski's Berlioz
Symphonie Fantastique is more
mannered than the famous Beecham recording
(now on EMI’s GROC) but it is full of
details that catch the attention. The
New Philharmonia in the Kingsway Hall
retain a silkiness to their string tone
where a hardness can be heard with the
Hilversum Radio Phil. Listen to
the repeated swirling high violins at
6.10 where not a hint of shrillness
enters the reckoning. Mannered or not
it is gorgeous even heard now after
the passage of 35 years. What a revolutionary
work too. No wonder Stokowski, the experimenter
and pioneer, recorded it. The multiple
harp descent at 00.31 simply has to
be heard. For all his delight in detail
abetted by Phase Four 'zooming', Stokowski
keeps control over the architecture.
I first noticed analogue hiss, though
deeply pressed down, at the awed and
haunting start of the Scene au champs.
The Marche au supplice starts
with the promise of rain, a gun metal
sky and glistening cobbles. Stereo effects
abound with the guttural double basses
and cellos grunting and the left-hand
channel catching the squat deep notes
of tuba and trombones in a drench of
Tchaikovskian doom. The capering familiars
and leering sprites are vividly portrayed
in the finale. This is a Symphonie
Fantastique to be reckoned with.
The doom-laden bell strokes at 3.03
confirm the point. Tape print-through
is no exclusive province of the amateur
as you can hear at 3.31 before the first
statement of the dies irae in
the finale. This laudanum dream of a
piece is caught with spectral energy
and phantasmal imagination by Stokowski
even if in the last pages it gallumphs
rather than flies.
Two lollipops follow.
The Berlioz Ballet des Sylphes is
gracious and sweet-toned. Ravel's explosively
insistent fanfare for the collaborative
work L'Eventail de Jeanne is
vivid although the principal trumpet
of Hilversum orchestra has some real
problems with his exposed line.
After the pressurised
Fanfare it is a joy to relax
into the detail and voluptuary ease
and flow of Lever du Jour from
the second Daphnis suite. Details
leap out at you to beguile and enthuse.
This is of a piece with his Scriabin
Poème de l’Extase. The
debit side of close proximity is that
when the great choral statements come
they cannot register with as much contrast
as you would ideally want … but the
effect is there. The range of
this exciting recording can be heard
in the Pantomime second movement.
In the gorgeous Danse générale
we hear the influence of the Russian
Ballet - a voice close to Stokowski’s
heart.
Stokowski makes a slow
motion harmonic slaloming dream out
of the Introduction to the Firebird
Suite (1919 version). The Infernal
Dance is shattering even if the
sound does beetle over the head of the
listener. The accelerations at the end
of the Dance go right off the scale.
And in the finale at 1.43, 1.50 and
2.00 the whooped horns rasp out their
wild music exhorting the orchestra to
new mornings and new victories. A special
event then even if the continuous in-your-face
balance may tire you and bring you back
to Dorati and the LSO in his wondrous
1960 performance (Mercury).
The Debussy Faune
is taken from a live 1972 RFH concert.
It is breathy and sensuous with lashings
of flute vibrato which rather dilutes
the effect. This recording is so powerful
it makes the ideal study companion for
the full score. La Mer is
taken at a leisurely pace with the high
noon shatteringly magnificent - end
of tr. 7. The Russian influence (Borodin
and Balakirev) is emphasised by Stokowski
in the Jeux de Vagues at 00.53
slurred and accented with microscopic
attention to detailing. This is a potent
La Mer even if a more mainstream
recommendation might come from Serge
Baudo (Supraphon) or Haitink (Philips).
The only work in this
five disc set that reaches towards modernity
is the Messiaen L'Ascension.
Originally written for organ (now there's
a surprise) Messiaen orchestrated the
piece in 1935. Stokowski relishes the
piled-on slow skidding string cascade
of the Prière du Christ (tr.14)
and makes me wonder what he might made
of Penderecki's Threnody for the
Victims of Hiroshima.
You could do a great
deal worse than give this box to someone
about to set out on the journey through
classical music. There is nothing ascetic
or bleached out in this set in which
each CD is packed close to capacity.
Of course this is also de rigueur
for Stokowskians who will find that
many of these recordings have not previously
been issued on CD. The music overflows
with gorgeous orchestral colours. It
is the aural equivalent of a box of
luxury Belgian chocolates. All the usual
health warnings apply but overall this
is a lovely set which is bound to make
new friends for Stokowski. Heard with
the recently
released Cala CD of the Phase
Four Scheherazade this introduces
or reminds listeners to Stokowski's
phenomenally sensual range as well as
his gift for visceral excitement.
Rob Barnett
