Stokowski Conducts French Music
Claude DEBUSSY (1862-1918)
La cathédrale engloutie (1910) [7:51]
Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (1891-1894) [12:23]
Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien (1911) [12:25]
La soirée dans Grenade (1903) [7:58]
Darius MILHAUD (1892-1974)
Symphony No. 1, Op. 210 (1940) [21:24]
Maurice RAVEL (1875-1937)
Daphnis et Chloé Suite No.2 (1912) [18:53]
NBC Symphony Orchestra / Leopold Stokowski
rec. 1943/1944, live radio broadcasts, Carnegie Hall, New York.
PRISTINE AUDIO PASC583 [79:26]
My first encounter with Leopold Stokowski was, like many,
through the spectacular Walt Disney film “Fantasia” (1940).
Despite his Middle European persona he was born in Marylebone, London
and seemed like a magician. Over the past 30 years, I have enjoyed listening
to some of his vast recorded legacy; even so there are quite a few recordings
that haven’t surfaced yet. In 1941, Toscanini had a dispute with
the NBC Symphony Orchestra and one result was that he went to the Philadelphia
Orchestra and Stokowski came to New York. These radio broadcasts are
selected from his time in New York. They have all the sparkle, magic
and dreamlike qualities that Stokowski generated right up to his death
in 1977, aged 95.
In the brief but adequate notes, Edward Johnson mentions that when Stokowski
visited London in 1957 to make one of his annual appearances in the
capital, he was invited onto “Desert Island Discs”. The
BBC's long-running radio programme features well-known persons
who are asked to choose eight recordings to take with them, should they
be marooned on a desert island. The programme was for many years presented
by Roy Plomley*.
Among Stokowski's choices was "Sirènes" from Debussy’s Three
Nocturnes. "I am a great lover of Debussy," he told Plumley,
"and when I was a student in Paris a long time ago I heard him
play the piano and I also heard him conduct. I think he was a great
genius." This is what I find so fascinating about “old recordings”
which are produced by Pristine Audio, and a few select others. The recordings,
from over three quarters of a century ago, enable the listener to hear
musicians who met the composers and this usually gives the performances
an authentic quality; it certainly does here.
*You can hear many Desert Island Disc
programmes
here
These tracks are taken from several radio concerts and have been restored,
very satisfactorily, by Pristine’s Andrew Rose. The Stokowski
orchestration of "The Engulfed Cathedral" is fairy-like and
the orchestra play in a manner that wouldn’t be possible today
including portamento swoops. I already have several recordings of Stokowski
conducting “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun.". Astonishingly,
he performed it for the first time in Cincinnati in 1912, made the first
American recording acoustically in 1924 (PASC 441) and played it for
the last time in 1972 at the age of 90. Stokowski said of it "This
music is a miracle of delicate, erotic beauty, suggesting a dream-world
of pagan loveliness, utterly original, in every way perfect." I
first heard the introduction as the theme to the BBC Home Service ‘Children’s
Hour’ serial in the early 1960s. Its mysterious beauty has always
captivated me. Beecham’s recording (Warner) is very special but
so is “Stoki” here on this generously filled disc. The enchantment
is also clearly apparent in the extracts from “The Martyrdom of
St. Sebastian” as is Stokowski’s conjuring of the atmosphere
of a Spanish fiesta in "Evening in Granada".
What is remarkable, during his three-season tenure with the NBC Symphony,
was the extraordinary amount of new music Stokowski programmed and often
just for one radio programme and never going back to them. It is to
be remembered that he didn’t “discover” Mahler’s
“Resurrection Symphony” until his 80s. “The Martyrdom
of St. Sebastian” is a case in point as is Darius Milhaud's
1st Symphony in what was its New York premiere. Milhaud was very pleased
with Stokowski’s performance, describing it as very powerful.
After a bizarre radio introduction, (Spanish?) the first movement as
described by Rob
Barnett as “innocent and intricate charm, pastoral beauty
and buoyancy. The rest of the work is unafraid of dissonance and darting
conflict. It is sometimes touched - as in the finale - by a neo-classical
flightiness”. I know very little of Milhaud although he was one
of the favourites of my recently departed mother-in-law (born in 1919)
and the work certainly conjures up the French countryside. He and his
family were refugees from occupied France, arriving in USA in 1940.
The Symphony No. 1 had just been completed, having been commissioned
by the Chicago Symphony as one of the works to mark the orchestra’s
50th anniversary celebrations. It was conducted by Milhaud himself on
17 October 1940. Perhaps one can draw a connection with Dvorak, who,
fifty years earlier, had drawn on his Czech homeland in the “New
World Symphony”. The following movements are certainly dissonant
and in the second movement boisterous. The finale has traces of Celtic
dance and is quite animated. I did sample the Guild transfer. While
listenable, unsurprisingly, the Pristine is much clearer having the
quality of a 1950s studio recording. As often, whilst reviewing, I feel
that time needs to be given to exploring more of a composer’s
oeuvre but there are always other priorities.
This very well filled programme ends with the 2nd Suite from Ravel's
"Daphnis and Chloe", which was also the concluding work on
that particular day's programme. Listening to it, Edward Johnson
wonders if the great maestro had glanced at the studio clock and wanted
to make sure the broadcast didn't over-run. This work was also
recorded elsewhere by Stokowski and like “The Engulfed Cathedral”
and "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun.", is on a Decca
“Masters” set of 5 CDs. There is also a recent complete
Decca
(23 CDs) set, which, also having Volume 2, I haven’t purchased.
For those with little or no Decca Stokowski the complete Decca is certainly
worth investigating. The Pristine performance has all the special qualities
that made Stokowski unique and conveys the splendour of Ravel’s
masterpiece in astonishing sound. The experience must have been very
inspiring for listeners in the bleak winter months of early 1943 and
this demonstrates the power of music to take one into a different world.
There is very fine playing; some very playful and one can imagine the
characters at Daybreak. The final movement goes like the clappers and
is around 100 seconds quicker than normal. Then again, the orchestra
would have been used to Toscanini’s speeds and take Stokowski’s
tempi in their stride.
This is a fabulous collection of music from one of the twentieth century’s
greatest maestros. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it and hope that
all lovers of Stokowski and classic performances acquire this. As always,
the re-mastering is of the highest order.
David R Dunsmore
