# The Great Leopold Stokowski



## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

Both of my _Tuesday Blog_ posts this month are dedicated to the late great conductor and arranger, Leopold Stokowski. In fact, this week's selection from the _Podcast Vault_ features three relevant aspects of Leopold - his adaptations of great works for Symphony Orchestra, his incisive conducting and his love for the Baroque.

In recent years, advocates of early instruments and "Historically Informed" performances may have gained the upper hand over those who want to hear baroque music played on today's fuller-sounding instruments. In spite of our ears being "tuned" to these tendencies, the legendary conductor eloquently makes a case for antique music on modern instruments. Old-fashioned gut strings? Forget it. Smaller ensembles? Quite the opposite.

This week's podcast, for example, provides one of *Vivaldi*'s "Four Seasons" under Stokowski's baton - the entire set will be featured in an upcoming post. Truly, one cannot mistake this for HIP, yet the colour of Vivaldi's music and the inventiveness of his use of the harpsichord, at times as the continuo, and at times as a soloist itself, is something only a master interpreter would exploit.

Of course, controversy lingers over whether Stokowski actually penned some of his transcriptions. Some have attributed the ``Bach-Stokowski'' works to *Lucien Cailliet*, clarinetist and resident orchestrator in Philadelphia from 1920 to 1938. The exact truth may never be known; but there is no doubt that the transcriptions convey Stokowskian ideals. As a conductor, the Philadelphia Orchestra's third music director knew the coloristic potential of an orchestra; as an organist, he played Bach, and had a concept of sound consistent with the instrument's big rumble.

Stokowski's orchestrations boldly declare "drama is King", and the bigger the emotion the better. Less evident in the *Purcell *pastiche I programmed, the drama, and the "Philadelphia Sound" in all its early stereophonic glory is in the front lines in Stokowski's orchestration of *Wagner*'s Love Music from _Tristan und Isolde_.

The final piece, an electric reading of *Nielsen*'s "Four Temperaments" symphony (performed with the Danish Radio Symphony, no less) explodes with colour and energy.

Happy Listening!

_ITYWLTMT Montage #122 - Leopold Stokowski
(Originally published on Friday, 13 September 2013)_​
*Antonio VIVALDI (1678-1741)*
Concerto for violin, strings and continuo in F Major, RV 293 
L'autunno (Autumn)	
Hugh Bean, violin
New Philharmonia Orchestra
Leopold Stokowski, conducting

*Leopold STOKOWSKI (1882-1977)* 
_Purcell Suite_, for orchestra (transcriptions after Purcell) (1949)	
BBC Philharmonic
Matthias Baemert, conducting

_Tristan und Isolde: Liebesnacht_ (Symphonic Synthesis after Wagner) (1932, rev. 1935)	
Philadelphia Orchestra
Leopold Stokowski, conducting

*Carl NIELSEN (1865-1931)*
Symphony no. 2, FS 29 (op. 16) 
_De fire Temperamenter (_The Four Temperaments)	DR SymfoniOrkestret
Leopold Stokowski, conducting


Original Bilingual Commentary: http://itywltmt.blogspot.com/2013/09/montage-122-leopold-stokowski.html
Detailed Playlist: https://archive.org/stream/pcast122-Playlist
Internet Archive Link: https://archive.org/details/Pcast122 
Pod-O-Matic Link (Valid until 31 october 2015): http://itywltmt.podomatic.com/entry/2015-10-06T00_00_00-07_00

*To read and listen to my musical selections this month, please visit my programming pages on both my English and French Blogs. Past music montages can also be heard on our Pod-O-Matic podcast channel.*


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