# Stoki Starvation!



## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

I've been working my way through ripping my classical CD collection for a little over a year now. My music server is now up to around 75 days worth of music, in another thread I was reminded of Stokowski's definitive Decca La Mer, and I went to listen to it. I realized to my horror that I had moved all my Stokowski recordings to their own book, and I hadn't touched it yet. For the past year, I haven't heard any Stoki! I'm correcting that error right now.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

bigshot said:


> I've been working my way through ripping my classical CD collection for a little over a year now. My music server is now up to around 75 days worth of music, in another thread I was reminded of Stokowski's definitive Decca La Mer, and I went to listen to it. I realized to my horror that I had moved all my Stokowski recordings to their own book, and I hadn't touched it yet. For the past year, I haven't heard any Stoki! I'm correcting that error right now.


I would certainly hope so---life without him would be boring.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

..I don't listen to Leo Stokes more than once a year as not to wear him out! 

I'm slowly making my way through the Decca Original Masters 5CD set since I bought it when it came out in 2004.









/ptr


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Stokey? Garbo finds love!


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

ptr said:


> ..I don't listen to Leo Stokes more than once a year as not to wear him out!
> 
> I'm slowly making my way through the Decca Original Masters 5CD set since I bought it when it came out in 2004.
> 
> ...


A superb set ...


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

Both of the Decca boxes are fantastic.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

ptr said:


> ..I don't listen to Leo Stokes more than once a year as not to wear him out!
> 
> I'm slowly making my way through the Decca Original Masters 5CD set since I bought it when it came out in 2004.
> 
> ...


You are,I believe,suffering from a misconception which is not new. He was born in Marylebone,London in 1882 the son of Kopernik Stokowski a Pole and Annie Moore Stokowski.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

moody said:


> You are,I believe,suffering from a misconception which is not new. He was born in Marylebone,London in 1882 the son of Kopernik Stokowski a Pole and Annie Moore Stokowski.


Here's an oddity. Stokowski's father was an "English-born cabinet-maker of Polish heritage." So his father was English born and bred, as was Stokowski himself.

But somehow he ended up with a thick European-sounding accent of uncertain provenance. Was it all show biz?


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

He got hs start as a conductor in the beginning of the 20th century in America. At that time, classical music in the US was a novelty dominated by newly rich society matrons. The aristocratic bearing, swept back hair and European accent were affectations designed to impress and help him get ahead in those early days. After awhile they became a trademark, so he just incorporated them into who he was.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

KenOC said:


> Here's an oddity. Stokowski's father was an "English-born cabinet-maker of Polish heritage." So his father was English born and bred, as was Stokowski himself.
> 
> But somehow he ended up with a thick European-sounding accent of uncertain provenance. Was it all show biz?


Well,it wasn't very thick but it did suddenly appear. Most certainly it was all showbiz but rather charming.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

bigshot said:


> He got hs start as a conductor in the beginning of the 20th century in America. At that time, classical music in the US was a novelty dominated by newly rich society matrons. The aristocratic bearing, swept back hair and European accent were affectations designed to impress and help him get ahead in those early days. After awhile they became a trademark, so he just incorporated them into who he was.


He came to America as an organist but got his start as a conductor through Hermann Thomas ,music critic of the Cincinatti Enquirer,who recomended him to the board of that city's orchestra.
He was there 1909-1912 but then left with some ill-feeling and made the famous move to Philadelphia.


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

_The Mystery of Leopold Stokowski_ by William Ander Smith http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...EQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Stokowski accent&f=false depicts a bit of a fantasist who created a romanticised childhood for himself. A third generation immigrant who didn't speak polish at home and a childhood of near poverty that included actual starvation, or at least rickets. Seems like he wasn't above creating great stories about his connection to disenfranchised aristocracy or his life with a grandfather who died before he was born.

Seems rather like Cary Grant AKA Archibald Leach, with is bizarrely cool no-place-on-earth accent and Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji with the somewhat less exotic name Leon Dudley Sorabji.


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