Richard WAGNER (1813-1883)
Die Walküre (1850): Wotan’s Farewell [12:19]; Magic Fire Music [4:41]
Fryderyk CHOPIN (1810-1849)
Mazurka No.4 in A minor, Op.17 (transcr. Stokowski) [5:14]
Prelude No.24 in D minor, Op.28 (transcr. Stokowski) [2:25]
Waltz No.2 in C sharp minor, Op.64 (transcr. Stokowski) [3:12]
Thomas CANNING (1911-1989)
Fantasy on a Hymn Tune by Justin Morgan (1944) [11:01]
Houston Symphony Orchestra/Leopold Stokowski
rec. March 1960, Houston
EVEREST SDBR 3070 [39:17]
There are a few salient things you should know about this disc, and I
speak as a long-time member of the now disbanded society dedicated to
the conductor. Firstly, he made a number of other recordings of Wotan’s
Farewell and Magic Fire Music. Second, his transcriptions
and the performances of the three Chopin pieces are amongst the most woeful
things he ever committed to record. Third, this disc - despite its supersonic
Everest sound - lasts a mere 39 minutes. Why on earth should you even
consider it?
That’s the case for the prosecution, which would go on to point
out that the 1960 Houston sessions did produce two good, though hardly
stellar Walküre extracts. The balances are good and the splendid
recording allows the listener to appreciate how the conductor moulded
the string section into some semblance of the Stokowski Sound in pursuance
of his idealised sonority. The brass and percussion make a considerable
impression too. However, what a disastrous eleven minutes of Chopin; a
Mazurka, a Prelude and a Waltz too terrible in arrangement and execution
even to be labelled ‘café band’. The orchestra was
under instructions, no doubt. In Oliver Daniel’s extensive biography
Stokowski himself has been quoted as saying – you won’t find
it in the booklet notes, obviously, which reproduce the original liner
notes – that the Chopin performance should not be offered to the
public ‘in its present form’ - the comment applied to all
three. If you do want to hear these rather simpering arrangements he had
already recorded the Mazurka and the Prelude with the Philadelphia in
1937, and was to return to the latter with his Symphony orchestra (1950)
and the National Philharmonic in 1976.
The case for the defence? It depends whether you have ever heard the recording
of Thomas Canning’s Fantasy on a Hymn Tune by John Morgan,
composed in 1944. The American-born Canning (1911-89) was clearly a disciple
of Vaughan Williams. Whilst the Fantasy lacks VW’s coherence and
rapturous quality, it must have appealed to Stokowski for its rich lyricism
and moving intensity. He was a great VW conductor. Commentators have rightly
pointed to the Tallis Fantasia similarities – they’re
unavoidable – not least because Canning writes for double string
quartet and string orchestra in emulation. He’d also clearly
heard the Variants on Dives and Lazarus, which was written a
few years before Canning’s own piece. There are also distinct echoes
of The Lark Ascending. So if you are interested in a mélange
of VW influences, you will enjoy this piece. For all that these allusions
may seem, critically speaking, to diminish it, Canning’s is a moving
and often beautiful piece in its own right.
One footnote to the above: when the Canning was pirated from Everest and
put out on LP it was credited to ‘Sir Malcolm Sutherland and the
London Stadium Orchestra’.
This, then, is the mixed case for the prosecution and defence. Splendid
sound, good performances such as are allowed by the music - that is, except
the Chopin trio - repetitive repertoire – largely the Wagner. One
eleven-minute novelty, the Canning. Awful playing time. Your call.
Jonathan Woolf
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