Some of these recordings
were amongst the last to be laid down
under Stokowski’s exclusive RCA contract.
If it seemed then that the contract
withered rather than went out with an
autumnal glow at least we can savour
the performances shorn of the bitterness
of the parting. They reappear now under
the Living Stereo rubric ushering in
another of the Red Seal SACD incarnations
and I should add my by now tiresome
rider that I’ve listened on an ordinary
set-up only.
It certainly registers
powerfully in the February 1960 sessions
– there’s real bite and drive in the
Liszt and the sound spectrum is seemingly
vast. The string playing is eloquent
and there’s some fine clarinet playing
from the wind ranks. This and the other
items on the disc were last available
in conventional CD format in the vast
14 disc RCA Red Seal Stokowski Collection
spanning the years 1943-75, issued in
1997. The Enescu is suffused with folk
glissandi, some impressions of native
folk instrumentation – in short, colour,
vivacity and the requisite succulent
melody.
We have two Smetana
pieces. Vltava receives an attractive
but not outstanding reading. It’s quite
leisurely, not a flaw in itself, but
when the rhythms aren’t quite sharply
enough etched it can hang fire. Attractive
though it is it tends to lack ardour
in the climaxes and can’t really match
the best Czechs – Kubelík, Ančerl,
Talich and Jérémias. The overture to
The Bartered Bride is an improvement,
still not stellar, though one can appreciate
how Stokowski animates those
inner voices and how well the studio
placements capture the torrent of orchestral
inner part incident.
The two Wagner examples
are certainly more than eloquent proof
of Stokowski’s ultimately untapped potential
as an operatic conductor, His Wagner
was always marvellous and he had control
of the long line as well as superlative
command of local colour and incident.
The winds are noble, Henry Schuman to
the fore on the cor anglais, in Tristan.
Strings are sometimes barely audible,
dynamics are occasionally extreme, and
the music making exalted. The Overture
and Venusberg Music of Tannhäuser
is similarly impressive. Colourful,
alive, not too pressing, with relaxed
rhythm – though never in any way slack
– this recording is enlivened by burnished
horns, lissom string textures and a
small role for the chorus.
More notable Stokowskian
fare, then, in rhapsodic vein for the
most part and persuasively successful
in the main.
Jonathan Woolf
RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra 
