The latest Cala Stokowski release enjoys some distinguished
music making. Two pieces here were originally reissued on a long admired
Leopold Stokowski Society LP (LS 18) dating from 1991 called ‘Music
From Vienna’ (they were the Haydn and Mozart). The remit of this CD
has expanded geographically to include the Austro-Germanic repertoire
and has at its heart two objectively outstanding performances of symphonic
literature. The recordings were made in 1949-50, released by RCA Victor
with the orchestra known as His Symphony Orchestra, an ensemble expressly
gathered for the purpose of recording Stokowski’s interpretations. It
included amongst its members a stellar gathering of New York’s finest
– John Corigliano, leader, William Lincer and Walter Trampler, violists,
the all star line up of cellists, Leonard Rose and Frank Miller, and
the principals of the other sections were just as distinguished. A precursor
to Stokowski’s final years when, after having returned to the city of
his birth, he began a series of remarkable recordings with the National
Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Humperdinck benefits from the spacious acoustic
afforded the musicians. Parsifalian strings vie with crisp trumpets
and well-articulated pizzicatos and there is a sense of vivacity coursing
through the score, the woodwind solos pipingly apt. Haydn doesn’t much
feature in the Stokowski discography but on this showing he was a convincing
exponent. Opening in grand, resonant style Stokowski is careful to give
full weight to the supportive cello line in a first movement notable
for its warmth, generosity and lack of intrusive idiosyncrasy. The Theme
and Variations Andante is similarly crisp and caressing; notable rubati
from 0’34 onwards as Stokowski slows up in preparation for the following
variational episode – but a properly slowing tempo is maintained. His
Allegro is a well-calibrated and jovial charmer and the Presto-Finale
full of commanding basses, solid horns and, authentic Haydn or not –
there still appears to be debate – it caps a splendid performance, the
only Haydn Symphony Stokowski ever recorded. His recording of the Schumann
is as fine; he catches the sweep and fire of the Allegro section of
the first movement as he does the vivacity and passion of the second.
In this the orchestra prove themselves a cohesive and flexible body
– note the horns’ stentorian passages in the first movement for example.
The slow movement is perhaps the highlight of the performance – unselfconscious
eloquence, the oboe winding through the score, Stokowski’s shaping of
the important bass line, the vocal quality he elicits from the individual
sections, the rise and fall of the musical argument projected with unexaggerated
truthfulness. After which the vigorous and triumphant conclusion of
the finale emerges in perhaps even greater relief adding evidence to
contemporary reports of Stokowski’s handling of the Schumann – again
this is the only symphony he recorded. The disc is filled out with the
little Mozart Dance – again another seldom recorded composer of Stokowski’s
but try to hear his only major recording, the Sinfonia Concertante for
winds on Cala CACD05023 to show what he could do with Mozart. And there
are also the two Strauss waltzes, which do feature largely in multiple
recordings in Stokowski’s repertoire. As sleeve note writer Edward Johnson
observes these are not the most authentic of performances but their
vigour and animation is certainty all Stokowski’s.
Jonathan Woolf
Leopold Stokowski and His
Symphony Orchestra