Stokowski Conducts = BACH: Toccata and Fugue in D Minor; TCHAIKOVSKY: Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a; DVORAK: Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95 “From the New World” – Philadelphia Orchestra (Tchaikovsky)/ Symphony Orchestra/Leopold Stokowski
Dutton CDBP 9803, 79:35 [Distr. by Harmonia mundi] ****:
While repeating inscriptions offered through Cala Records and its ties to the Leopold Stokowski Society, this Dutton issue offers such spectacularly smooth transfers we may as well indulge ourselves in the Stokowski Sound to best advantage. The familiar Stokowski transcription of Bach’s organ Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (22 March 1947) resonates with the same slick panache we know from the movie Fantasia, the horns (of New York Philharmonic and NBC Orchestra members) ablaze. The brilliant string sound, abetted by free bowing, creates a sheer and plastic surface, the musical line an unbroken series of colloquys along the orchestral diapason.
The 26 November 1934 inscription of the Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Suite with the Philadelphia Orchestra remains a landmark of its kind, the second such recording by Stokowski, who premiered the suite on records in 1926. The Marche miniature enjoys a particular bite, the horn entries in fine color against the pulsating strings. Great work from celesta and low woodwinds for the Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy, the sonic definition in silken colors. A virile Trepak segues to a Scriabinesque Arabian Dance, sinuous and smoky in its erotic gestures. Stunning clarity in Chinese Dance, pointed and staccato, shimmering in high-flown effects. The Stokowski Sound emanated clean-lined elegance in those days prior to Stokowski’s Hollywood years, when sloppy musical indulgences–namely all sorts of rude portamentos–corrupted his style. The Danse des mirlitons–the flutes–enjoys an aerial flavor and seamless continuity, the model of its kind. The harp solo in Valse des fleurs proves as virtuosic as the lilting phrases of the waltz itself, delicate, buoyant, invested with Russo-Gallic charm.
Dvorak’s New World Symphony (10, 12 December 1947, RCA LM 1013) has the benefit of the late Mitch Miller at the English horn solo in the Largo. Stokowski takes his traditional liberties with Dvorak tempos, but the reading carries an inner vitality quite propulsive and representative of the conductor’s estimate of the score as a “Symphony of America.” No repeat in the first movement, but exuberant woodwinds, horns, and strings celebrate Native American and Bohemian rhythms in collaborative concert. The rounded phrases suggest, perhaps ironically, the same orchestral patina achieved by a personality worlds apart from Stokowski, Herbert von Karajan. The Largo provides the heart of the music, the Negro spiritual “Goin’ Home” played with lingering affection by Mitch Miller. Nostalgia and intimate passions compete for supremacy through the course of the movement, the string quartet medium employed quite effective in the late pages. More tribally slashing colors inform the Scherzo, with trumpets and tympani quite active under pizzicato and whirling strings. The color of Stokowski low string line warrants the price of admission, the violas and cellos simply luxuriant. Stentorian pageantry opens the last movement, rife with a constant sense of the tympani’s contribution to the rhythmic life of the piece. The middle section Stokowski takes marcato to increase the interior tensions among the string choirs. The ineluctable crescendo becomes Noah’s Flood, a torrential downpour of Romantic sound that takes refuge in cyclic recollections of the prior movements. A gong adds to the Slavic chorale that emerges at the last, a paean to both Dvorak’s innate pantheism and the Stokowski love of spectacle.
–Gary Lemco
