Guild GHCD 2335 mono, 73:52 (Distrib. Albany) ****:
Broadcast performances 1941-1943 from the NBC Symphony under Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977) in good to muddy sound, with Stokowski himself offering commentary prior to each of the works except for Taylor‘s. The most curious of the pieces presented is the MacDowell (7 April 1942), the concerto truncated, presumably, to fit the 60-minte format of the sponsored radio performance. Stokowski liked MacDowell’s D Minor Concerto and programmed it with several distinguished soloists over his career: Teresa Carreno, Leo Ornstein, Gary Graffman, and Andre Watts. Frances Nash proves a worthy exponent of the two movements we have preserved, moving with brisk, powerful chords through the first movement, Stokowski’s graceful strings and winds underneath. Better sonic definition for the fleet Presto, kind of perpetual motion for keyboard and orchestra, with a jaunty middle section.
Stokowski’s NBC programs open with three movements from Prokofiev’s opera The Love of Three Oranges (18 November 1941), of which the last section, the popular March, Stokowski drives with furious aplomb, ending before the audience is quite ready. The large work, the Brahms Fourth Symphony (18 November 1941), like the Prokofiev comes from the Cosmopolitan Opera House, unlike the other two, from Studio 8H. Stokowski’s introductory remarks suffer some shears, but the music starts off quickly and never slows down. The first to record the complete Brahms Symphonies (in Philadelphia), it remains difficult to place Stokowski’s Brahms into a definite tradition, unlike Toscanini who admired Nikisch and Steinbach in Brahms. Given the frenetic pace of this E Minor Symphony realization, we might speculate Boult (via Nikisch) to be an influence.
The speed and spontaneity of execution testify to the virtuoso status of the NBC players, who had to adjust their usual perceptions of this work from Maestro Toscanini. A terrific peroration ends the first movement’s counterpoint, and the audience applauds. The Phrygian Andante moderato receives the broadest treatment of any of the four movements, Stokowski allowing his winds and French horn breathing room, then his strings sing and usher in the martial procession. A grand final peroration, and the audience applauds. The Scherzo moves at blinding speed, at least to bar 181 (Poco meno presto), then hustling for all the NBC is worth to the three tympanic thuds, and audience applause. One gripping, gnarly passacaglia ensues, no kidding around, the strings in a molasses of somber fury. Only the flute variation basks in its own sound, then intertwines with oboe and clarinet. The whole symphony took 36 minutes, breathless but not shapeless, and often gripping.
Stokowski closes (26 December 1943) with music by critic and composer Deems Taylor (1885-19660, his orchestral music from the opera Ramuntcho (1942). The music has a swaying power and rich orchestration that might pass for Hollywood Latin America. An oboe solo leads to an Amazon-sounding ostinato and a flimsy melody that rises in volume, if not in power. Another musical curiosity from Stokowski, who loved to premier new works that he did not necessarily program again.
— Gary Lemco
