Stokowski Time from
Guild. Specifically Stokowski and
the NBC between 1941 and 1943. The
Prokofiev and the Brahms derive from
the same concert, given in Cosmopolitan
Opera House (City Centre), New York,
on 18 November 1941. Both pieces are
announced by the conductor, albeit
briefly. The Suite from The Love
of Three Oranges was presumably
a trial run for the commercial recording
he set down about ten days later.
In any case the NBC sounds superbly
drilled and ready to give of their
proverbial all. The Inferno is powerful,
the Prince and Princes done with Stokowskian
succulence; and the March – very,
very brisk by the way – is military
in its intensity.
Talking of which,
the same concert’s Brahms E minor
Symphony registers with very much
the same kind of kinetic force as
all his surviving performances of
it. There’s a galvanic, surging sweep
that remains exciting even if one
finds oneself resisting the torrid
momentum he invokes. It’s actually
quicker by nearly two minutes than
his last, live thoughts on the matter
(see review).
In that performance, given with the
New Philharmonia at the Albert Hall
in 1974, I noted the basic consistency
of approach since his first 1931 recording
of the Fourth. Local incidents of
course differ; so too questions of
dynamics and especially accelerandi,
but it is evident that his essential
approach remained intact over the
years and didn’t undergo great re-appraisal.
The surging cantabile of the NBC in
the first movement is notable, so
too the typically volatile power keg
nature of Stokowski’s leadership.
Sometimes the acoustic is watery and
that does dissipate things slightly.
But the tensile and lithe instinct
for drama, the portamentos in the
second movement (especially), and
the taut bracing determinism of the
reading are cleansing. A pity the
brass begin to tire but all Stokowskians
will want to hear this major symphonic
statement if they’ve not already done
so.
Don’t be misled by
the MacDowell. The third movement
wasn’t played so we have the torso
of the first two movements only. This
was a concerto Stokowski returned
to a few times; there was an unpublished
recording in 1966 with Andre Watts.
Here in 1942 he is paired with Frances
Nash, a good though not outstanding
player. The piano tone is a bit murky
but it’s fascinating to hear Stoky
whipping up the NBC in the agitato
pages of the Larghetto calmato
– it’s not always calmato when
Stokowski’s around. Finally there’s
Deems Taylor’s enjoyable and engagingly
colourful, vital, vivid – choose your
adjectives, they all apply – Ramuntcho
which is duly dispatched with
Stokowskian élan.
I believe the Prokofiev,
Brahms and MacDowell have all been
issued on Enno Riekena, a German CD
label. I’m not aware of previous transfers
of the Deems Taylor. In any case Guild
gives them all a first international
CD vantage. They sound in pretty reasonable
shape, with provisos as noted, and
with the usual good standard of documentation
maintained it’s really a question
of how balanced and valuable the programme
is to the assiduous collector.
Jonathan Woolf
A balanced and valuable programme
for the assiduous collector ... see
Full Review
NBC Symphony Orchestra/Leopold Stokowski
