Reviews for
GHCD 2335 - Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977)
– Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev
(1891-1953): The Love for Three Oranges
-live 18 November 1941, Cosmopolitan Opera––
Edward Alexander MacDowell (1860-1908):
From Piano Concerto No.2 in D minor Op. 23 1st
and 2nd movements - Frances Nash,
piano - 7 April 1942,
NBC Studio 8-H, New York -
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897):
Symphony No. 4 in E minor Op 98
- 18 November 1941, Cosmopolitan Opera, NBC Symphony Orchestra Joseph Deems
Taylor (1855-1966): From the Opera in 3 Acts "Ramuntcho" – Act
III ballet Music 26 December 1943,
NBC Studio 8-H, New York,
NBC Symphony
Orchestra – 73:52
MusicWeb –
Wednesday May 21st 2008
A balanced
and valuable programme for the assiduous collector ... Jonathan Woolf
Leopold
Stokowski and the NBC Symphony Orchestra
Serge
PROKOFIEV
(1891-1953)
Suite from The Love of Three Oranges Op.33a (1921) [8:26]
Edward
MACDOWELL
(1860-1908)
Piano Concerto No.2 in D minor Op.23 – movements 1 and 2 only (1888-89) [18:11]
Johannes
BRAHMS
(1833-1897)
Symphony No.4 in E minor Op.98 (1884-85) [35:48]
Deems TAYLOR
(1885-1966)
Ramuntcho – Introduction and Ballet Music, Act III (1942) [8:12]
NBC
Symphony Orchestra/Leopold Stokowski
rec. Cosmopolitan Opera House (City Centre), New York, 18 November 1941
(Prokofiev and Brahms), Studio 8H, New York, 7 April 1942 (MacDowell) and 26
December 1943 (Taylor)
GUILD
HISTORICAL GHCD 2335
[73:52]
Stokowski Time from Guild. Specifically Stokowski and the NBC between 1941 and
1943. The Prokofiev and the Brahms derive from the same concert, given in
Cosmopolitan Opera House (City Centre), New York, on 18 November 1941. Both
pieces are announced by the conductor, albeit briefly. The Suite from The
Love of Three Oranges was presumably a trial run for the commercial
recording he set down about ten days later. In any case the NBC sounds superbly
drilled and ready to give of their proverbial all. The Inferno is powerful, the
Prince and Princes done with Stokowskian succulence; and the March – very, very
brisk by the way – is military in its intensity.
Talking of which, the same concert’s Brahms E minor Symphony registers with very
much the same kind of kinetic force as all his surviving performances of it.
There’s a galvanic, surging sweep that remains exciting even if one finds
oneself resisting the torrid momentum he invokes. It’s actually quicker by
nearly two minutes than his last, live thoughts on the matter (see
review).
In that performance, given with the New Philharmonia at the Albert Hall in 1974,
I noted the basic consistency of approach since his first 1931 recording of the
Fourth. Local incidents of course differ; so too questions of dynamics and
especially accelerandi, but it is evident that his essential approach remained
intact over the years and didn’t undergo great re-appraisal. The surging
cantabile of the NBC in the first movement is notable, so too the typically
volatile power keg nature of Stokowski’s leadership. Sometimes the acoustic is
watery and that does dissipate things slightly. But the tensile and lithe
instinct for drama, the portamentos in the second movement (especially), and the
taut bracing determinism of the reading are cleansing. A pity the brass begin to
tire but all Stokowskians will want to hear this major symphonic statement if
they’ve not already done so.
Don’t be misled by the MacDowell. The third movement wasn’t played so we have
the torso of the first two movements only. This was a concerto Stokowski
returned to a few times; there was an unpublished recording in 1966 with Andre
Watts. Here in 1942 he is paired with Frances Nash, a good though not
outstanding player. The piano tone is a bit murky but it’s fascinating to hear
Stoky whipping up the NBC in the agitato pages of the Larghetto calmato –
it’s not always calmato when Stokowski’s around. Finally there’s Deems
Taylor’s enjoyable and engagingly colourful, vital, vivid – choose your
adjectives, they all apply – Ramuntcho which is duly dispatched with
Stokowskian élan.
I
believe the Prokofiev, Brahms and MacDowell have all been issued on Enno Riekena,
a German CD label. I’m not aware of previous transfers of the Deems Taylor. In
any case Guild gives them all a first international CD vantage. They sound in
pretty reasonable shape, with provisos as noted, and with the usual good
standard of documentation maintained it’s really a question of how balanced and
valuable the programme is to the assiduous collector.
Jonathan
Woolf
Audiophile Audition – Monday April 07, 2008
Stokowski Conducts
PROKOFIEV: The Love of 3 Oranges--Suite; MACDOWELL: Piano Concerto No. 2 in D
Minor; BRAHMS: Symphony No. 4 in E Minor; TAYLOR: Ramuntcho - Intro. and Ballet
Music, Act III - Frances Nash, p./NBC Sym./Leopold Stokowski - Guild
Stokowski
loved to premier new works that he did not necessarily program again, such as
the music from Deems Taylor's opera "Ramuntcho."
Stokowski
Conducts = PROKOFIEV: The Love of 3 Oranges--Suite, Op. 33a; MACDOWELL: Piano
Concerto No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 23: two movements; BRAHMS: Symphony No. 4 in E
Minor, Op. 98; TAYLOR: Ramuntcho--Introduction and Ballet Music, Act III -
Frances Nash, piano/ NBC Symphony Orchestra/Leopold Stokowski
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
Page revised Wednesday May 21 2008