Stokowski was a mercurial
musician and every facet of that larger-than-life
personality is evident in this triumphant
performance of Mahler’s Second Symphony.
Recorded live at the 1963 Proms – that
symphony’s first performance at that
festival – it has the panache, gripping
inventiveness and long-term vision of
that conductor’s finest work in the
concert hall.
What is all the more
remarkable is that this is a performance
which suggests a lifetime of experience
with it – listen to how he takes the
opening Allegro maestoso in what seems
like a single breath – and yet this
was only the second time he had ever
conducted the symphony; the first was
more than 40 years earlier in 1921 with
the Philadelphia Orchestra. There are
questions – why, for example, does Stokowski
have the choral altos accompany the
contralto in the first eight bars of
‘O Schmerz, du Alldurchdringer’ when
acoustically it was unnecessary? But
there are dividends to be had elsewhere
for this is among the most vividly coloured
of all Mahler Seconds, especially in
the conductor’s handling of the orchestral
woodwind. The fff opening of
the fifth movement has a palpable sense
of terror about it and at Fig. 8 it
becomes almost overwhelming so explosively
does Stokowski interpret Mahler’s score.
The moment – still for this writer one
of the greatest of all Mahler’s inventions
– when four trombones and a tuba intone
for a magnificent eight bars (at Fig.
10) has a serenity and heavenliness
to it that prefigures the Klopstock
resurrection theme in the chorus. In
recent years, I have only heard Gilbert
Kaplan (with the Vienna Philharmonic)
and Claudio Abbado (with the Lucerne
Festival Orchestra) achieve a similar
effect. String diminuendos might not
be all they should be and glissandi
in the first movement at Fig. 23 are
somewhat literally done but these dynamic
quibbles don’t distort the view that
this is a special performance.
What remains compelling
about the performance is its sheer inevitability
as if the very first bar of the symphony
is the beginning of the end (in Stokowski’s
case the chorus’ final summons of ‘Aufersteh’n’);
his grasp of the large-scale musical
architecture of this symphony is simply
remarkable. Both his soloists – but
especially Janet Baker – are splendid
and the London Symphony Orchestra are
superb throughout (certainly very much
better than Barbirolli’s Berliners:
Testament SBT 1320) with only the final
movement really testing their virtuosic
limits.
Although this is a
mono recording most listeners would
be hard pushed to believe it wasn’t
early stereo. Listening on first headphones
and then on a four-speaker surround
sound player I was impressed by how
much inner detail survived the transition.
The BBC tape is crystal clear: woodwind
are clearly heard when in many performances
(and especially studio ones) they are
muddied and strings have an ambient
warmth to them whilst at the same time
being able to preserve the LSO’s rather
special string tone (’cellos and basses
have fabulous depth to them). This is
a vivid contrast to Barbirolli’s recent
BPO Mahler Second on Testament which
is both dry and congested (and indeed
a performance that does little to enhance
that conductor’s vastly overrated reputation
in Mahler). More impressively, the vast
choral edifice that closes the work
is resplendent in its acoustical balance,
a model not just of its time but of
ours too. It’s just a pity that the
BBC couldn’t have included a second
disc with the encore: a repeat of the
final movement from the chorus’ entry
onwards.
As Robert Angles said
at the time: " Stokowski’s was
great and noble conducting by any count,
certainly giving us the most moving
and effective performance of Mahler’s
Second I have ever heard… and in such
hands, what an overwhelming work it
is." This reviewer, for one, would
not disagree.
Marc Bridle
London Symphony Orchestra/Leopold Stokowski 
