THIS DISC WAS VOTED
RECORDING
OF THE MONTH IN SEPTEMBER
I’m so overwhelmed
I don’t know how to write about this!
So let me put down a few notes about
some of the many aspects of these performances
that so gripped me.
Mastery of sound.
Both recordings are close-miked (at
Stokowski’s wish) and in no. 1 in particular
he seems to want us to hear that these
are modern works, with no lapses
into tired romantic sounds or facile
string cushions. He takes us into an
intense world of nature where terrifying
storms may brew up at a moment’s notice
and where the sudden hushes are more
ominous still. He also leads us into
a world which may usually seem dormant
under its snowy mantle, but is actually
teeming with life as any naturalist
will tell you. Hear what he finds under
the surface of the strangely unsettling
trio to the scherzo of no. 1.
Feeling of organic
growth. Stokowski makes each idea
grow out of the one before. Listen to
the jagged opening of the finale of
no. 1, then out of this comes a hushed
chord for two flutes that seems to have
risen out of that jagged passage.
Then more build-up that tumbles into
the unison string passage (played with
devastating virtuosity), after which
the following chorale again seems to
have been already there, implicit in
the music that went before. In theory
Stokowski’s slowing at the end of the
exposition of the first movement of
no. 2 is wrong, but what utter magic
as the oboe sounds out of the silence
and the music proves not to have stopped
after all.
Intellectual command.
This may surprise since Stokowski is
sometimes written off as a magician
with sound and that’s all. The last
section of the first movement of no.
2 has aroused a lot of comment ever
since Cecil Forsyth years ago said that
the recapitulation in this movement
came before the exposition. In
modern terms this is called "deconstruction"
(a word associated with much modern
art). Sibelius is attempting to put
together again the imposing edifice
he created in the central climax of
the movement, but putting together the
bricks in such a way that they fall
apart again, so undermining what he
did previously. After each pause Stokowski
makes a slight spurt of tempo as the
material is put together, then has to
stop (because there is another pause),
so we actually hear this deconstruction
taking place. But we also realized that
it was implicit from the beginning.
When that clucking theme in the woodwind
enters after the opening string chorale,
Stokowski has the players slightly accelerating
away from the rest of the orchestra,
and they do this every time that theme
comes. With another conductor this would
spell disaster for the ensemble. Stokowski
gets away with it and by this means
shows us the purpose of this
theme in the movement.
Building climaxes.
Stokowski has such a total command of
orchestral dynamics that he can create
a swift climax out of nothing, or build
a long one over several pages, turning
phrases into sentences, sentences into
paragraphs. Other conductors can build
long climaxes, but often you feel they
are holding back so as to keep something
in reserve. Stokowski apparently lives
every moment, and yet he always gets
more next time, This was one of the
few occasions when I felt that the finale
of no. 2 didn’t reach its climax
about half-way through.
In short, these are
great, unrepeatable and inimitable recordings
on a level with (for example) Furtwängler’s
Schumann 4. Schumann was never privileged
to hear that, but the booklet of this
disc reproduces a letter from Sibelius
to Stokowski thanking him for his "wonderful
performance of my First Symphony".
If you have heard these works so often
you wonder if they’ve still got anything
to say for you, get this at all costs
(not that it costs much!). But don’t
play it too often, keep a "safe"
version like Berglund’s for everyday
use; this is too special.
The recordings are
close-miked but have a lot of character.
The booklet has an essay on the symphonies
by Edward Clark, the President of the
UK Sibelius Society, a note from Stokowski
expert Edward Johnson on the conductor’s
relationship with Sibelius’s music generally
– and Stokowski’s own note to the original
issue of no. 2. Among other things,
he writes: "Great music always
has great themes… this symphony has
an inexhaustible variety of themes and
moods, sometimes rustic, at times like
fantastic cries of Nature, rushing,
impulsive waves of sound, like violent
wind on the surface of a lake, or through
the high trees of a forest ..".
I can’t imagine any conductor today
writing like that. They don’t conduct
like this, either …
Christopher Howell
See also review
from Rob Barnett [September
RECORDING OF THE MONTH]
Leopold Stokowski conducts his Symphony Orchestra
(no. 1), the NBC Symphony Orchestra (no. 2) 
