MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW
Plain text for smartphones & printers


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

Availability
Stokowski - A Renaissance and Baroque Concert
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Siciliano from Violin Sonata No.4 in C minor, BWV1017 [4:02]
Mein Jesu, BWV487 [5:05]
Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV582 [13:48]
Antonio VIVALDI (1678-1741)
Concerto Grosso in D minor Op.3 No.11 (L’Estro Armonico) [13:15]
Antonio CESTI (1623-1669)
Tu mancavi a tormentarmi, crudelissima speranza [6:23]
Jean-Baptiste LULLY (1632-1687)
Le Triomphe de l’Amour; Nocturne [5:34]
Thésèe; March [1:04]
Girolamo FRESCOBALDI (1583-1643)
Gagliarda [3:32]
Giovanni Pierluigi da PALESTRINA (1525/6-1594)
Adormaus te [2:58] ²
O Bone Jesu [2:14] ²
Giovanni GABRIELI (1553/6-1612)
Canzon Quatri Toni a 15 [7:17]¹
In Ecclesiis Benedicite Domino [10:28] ¹ ² ³
Leopold Stokowski and his Symphony Orchestra
Brass Choir ¹
A Capella Chorus ²
Charles Courboin (organ) ³
rec. 1950-52, Manhattan Center, NYC
Mono transfers
PRISTINE AUDIO PASC391 [75:40]

This is an ingenious piece of programming. Even diehard Stokowski addicts will have a hard job tracking down these recordings on their shelves. Indeed it would be impossible if the shelves were exclusively devoted to CD as none of these pieces has hitherto been transferred to commercial silver disc. The only chance of acquiring them in that medium is if you had managed to acquire some of the private discs transferred by Stokowski nut Theo van der Burg, but the chances of that are slight.
 
Stokowski was a great transcriber, as we know. Some might scoff at his Albinoni-izing of Bach’s Siciliano from the Sonata for violin and keyboard in C minor, but you won’t hear me complain: amplitude and depth. If, by chance, one isn’t taken by that, then surely the inward meditation of Mein Jesu will appeal, as will the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV582. I find it rather strange that this hasn’t appeared over the last thirty or so years but the fact is that it hasn’t. All three of these Bach performances were recorded in 1950. Stokowski demands intense bowing in the opening Allegro of the Vivaldi Concerto Grosso, and he vests the slow movement with real warmth. The finale is brilliantly conceived and projected. His symphony orchestra really dig into the strings in the Cesti transcription, the seamless bowing and emotive diction easily surviving the 1952 sonics. The two Lully pieces are descriptive winners, the sassy brass being particularly effective in the March. The solemn cello-rich voicings in the Frescobaldi attest to Stokowski’s indelible command of string voicings and layering. For the Palestrina he is joined by a fruity chorus, which also contributes to Gabrieli’s In Ecclesiis Benedicite Domino which receives a performance of outsize panache.
 
Maybe one of the reasons that these recordings have been overlooked is the fact that many were favourites of the transcriber and he had earlier recorded a swathe in Philadelphia. I note that Mark Obert-Thorn did the honours for the Stokowski Society LP transfer of those Phily recordings [LSSA-5]. Irrespective of that, many of these pieces exist in multiple performances recorded from 1929 to 1972. Congestion, and the supposition that the Philadelphia 78s were the ones to go for, has squeezed out these RCA Victors. Most of them first appeared on album LM-1721; the Bachs were on LM-1133.
 
Now’s the time then to add these first-rate transfers to your shelves.
 
Jonathan Woolf