Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra

Their Story and Their Recordings 1917 to 1940

 

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The Stokowski Legacy                                      Version française

 

Among the great conductors of the twentieth century, Leopold Stokowski had a unique and fascinating career.

 

Unique in the variety and quantity of his performances and recordings of music, and especially of new music, from composers of all musical persuasions.

 

Unique in his role in disseminating music to the public and in particular, the American public.  This was done  through Stokowski's innovative repertoire, innovative concert formats, youth concerts, and pioneering broadcast techniques.  This dissemination of music was further benefited by Stokowski's flair for promoting himself and his music and by the popularity of his stream of recordings from 1917 to 1977.

 

Unique in his involvement with the development of recorded sound.  Stokowski was involved in orchestral recording from the acoustic to the quadraphonic eras, and in pioneering efforts in High Fidelity and stereophonic recording with the Bell Laboratories.

 

1917 Acoustic recording of the Brahms Hungarian Dance no 5 and

1974 Quadraphonic recording of works of Tchaikovsky

 

Themes of this stokowski.org Website

   

This site concentrates on Stokowski's recordings as a witness not only of Stokowski's career, but also of the evolution of sound recording during his era. This site further benefits from the extensive scholarship and efforts of a number of researchers and amateurs of the work of Stokowski, so generously shared with all of us who enjoy Stokowski's legacy.

 

Primary development of this site will be first, the acoustic recordings of Stokowski and the Philadelphians from 1917 to 1924, and second, the complete legacy of electrical recordings of Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1925 to 1940.  Later, I hope to add examples of Stokowski's art that are less easily found or not found at all from current CD sources.

  

The music of Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra will include as many mp3 recordings of this Stokowski / Philadelphia repertoire as will fit in the storage of the stokowski.org site. These music tracks will allow those interested to hear Stokowski's many great recordings.  In addition, they will, hopefully, encourage visitors to this site to purchase some of the many excellent CDs available reproducing the historic Stokowski legacy.

 

A note on the mp3 files included in this site: I have not included material that has been published in the many excellent CDs containing restorations of the Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra recordings (about which you can read more at CDs of Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra ). The reason is that I would not like to do anything which might potentially reduce the sales of these efforts by the leading restoration experts. Also, I would not wish to reduce the (probably already small) sales of these recordings by the leading publishers who have commissioned the restoration of these recordings.

 

However, the corollary of this decision is that my examples of the recordings of Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra are not sonically as good as those produced by the leading restoration experts. For example, I have used sparingly some software to de-click recordings, but found this degrades the orchestra sound in some cases.  Professional systems such as CEDAR are too expensive for this project, so the recordings here generally have a higher level of 'crackle' and clicks than the best commercial transcriptions. However, I believe the Stokowski material on this site from my sources and from my friends is of a level which likely you can appreciate Stokowski's art and hopefully enjoy the performances and the music, which give pleasure today, even ninety years later.

 

Note on listening to the Stokowski recordings

 

The recordings in this site are files in mp3 format (mostly, 128 kbps) encoded from my recordings.  Links to the mp3 files are located in two places:

 

First - in the page covering the year of the recording.  For example, links to a 1926 recording are found in the page:   1926 - Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra Recordings  

 

Second - in the Chronological Discography page.  For example, links to a 1926 recording are also found in the electrical recordings chronological discography page:  Chronological Discography of Electrical Recordings    This Chronological Discography page lists all the electrical recordings from 1925 to 1940 made by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski and issued by Victor, including of course the 1926 recordings.  For each recording listed in the Discography table, there is a 'MP3' link on the right-hand side which also will download the recording.

 

The mp3 files in this site are mostly encoded at 128 kbps.  This means that the files are of different sizes, according to the length of the music.  For example, the second Stokowski electrical recording, the April 29, 1925 Borodin ‘Polovetzki Dances’ is small (3.6 Mb).  In contrast, the 1929 Le Sacre du Printemps file is large.  Le Sacre part 1 is 14 Mb and Le Sacre part 2 is 16 Mb.

 

This means that a large file will take a longer time to download, depending on your internet connection speed.  Please keep this in mind when you click to listen to (which means to download) a particularly music file.  You may click the link to the music file, but need to wait a number of seconds or even minutes to listen to the file.

 

Organization of the stokowski.org site:

The contents of this site are organized below into four sections:

 

   1.   Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra  acoustic recordings from 1917 to 1924

 

   2.   Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra  electrical recordings from 1925 to 1940 .

 

   3.   Information about the recordings and  material about Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra

 

   4.   In addition, another project added to this site is a biographical listing of the  Principal Musicians of Leading United States Orchestras .   In researching the 'Principal' or 'solo' musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra, I was surprised to find how little information is available about the fascinating story of their careers.

 

Indeed, the same situation exists in general for the Principal musicians of most all of the leading orchestras.  Therefore, for the U.S. orchestras, I have added a section on these Principal Musicians, organized by orchestra, to which I am gradually adding.  Needless to say, this is a large task, only gradually accomplished.  Should you have added information about any of the orchestras, or their Principal musicians, please contact me.

 

1. Stokowski Acoustic Recordings.

 

From its first recording, Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia orchestra inaugurated a period of recording made possible by the development of the acoustic recording process, invented by Edison, and further developed by the Victor Talking Machine Company.  To explore this era, click below to go to the appropriate web page:

 

The Development of Acoustic Recording

 

1917 - 1924 The Acoustic Recordings of Leopold Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra

 

1917 - first 78 RPM Acoustic Victor recordings of Leopold Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra

 

Leopold Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra Other Acoustic Recordings from 1917 and 1919

 

Leopold Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra Other Acoustic Recordings of 1920 and 1921

 

Leopold Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra Other Acoustic Recordings from 1922 - 1924

 

Leopold Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra Acoustic Recordings of Russian Music 1919 - 1924

 

Leopold Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra French Acoustic Recordings 1920 to 1924

 

Leopold Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra Wagner Acoustic Recordings of 1921 and 1924

 

Leopold Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra Tchaikovsky Acoustic Recordings 1921 - 1924

 

Leopold Stokowski - Serge Rachmaninoff and the Philadelphia Orchestra - 1924

 

2.   Stokowski Electrical Recordings

 

Beginning in 1925, Stokowski and the Philadelphians made the first orchestra recording in the United States (and, in fact, the first in the world) using the new electrical recording process.  Click on the links below to read about and hear these recordings:


Bell Laboratories and the Development of Electrical Recording

 

Licensing the Bell - Westrex Electrical Recording System

 

1925 - First Electrical Recording - Leopold Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra

 

1925 - Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra Other Electrical Recordings

 

1926 - Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra Recordings

 

1927 Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra

 

More 1927 Leopold Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra Recordings

 

1928 - Stokowski Philadelphia Recordings       1929 - Stokowski Philadelphia Recordings

 

1930 - Stokowski Philadelphia Recordings       1931 - Stokowski Philadelphia Recordings

 

1932 - Stokowski Philadelphia Recordings       1933 - Stokowski Philadelphia Recordings

 

1934 - Stokowski Philadelphia Recordings       More 1934 - Stokowski Philadelphia Recordings

 

1935 - Stokowski Philadelphia Recordings       1936 - Stokowski Philadelphia Recordings

 

1937 - Stokowski Philadelphia Recordings       1939 - 1940 - Stokowski Philadelphia Recordings

 

 

3. Other Stokowski Material:

 

In addition, there are a number of pages of information related to the recordings of Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra on this site.  Click the link below to read and hear more about Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra:


Camden Church Studio - Victor Talking Machine Recording Location

 

Leopold Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra Recording in the Academy of Music Philadelphia

 

Interviews with Leopold Stokowski

 

Leopold Stokowski Biography

 

Leopold Stokowski Orchestrations

 

Leopold Stokowski, Harvey Fletcher and the Bell Laboratories Experimental Recordings

 

Masters of the Modern Restoration of Historic Disks

 

Leopold Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra Chronological Discography

 

Further Material on Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra

 

CDs of Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra

 

Leopold Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra Bibliography, Sources and Credits

 

4.   Principal Musicians of Major American Orchestras

 

Since there seems to be a surprising lack of historical information about the principal musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and in general the principals of the other leading symphony orchestras of the United States, I have started, out of my own interest, to try to compile brief biographies of the musicians of the major orchestras listed below.  Often, it is difficult even to form an accurate historical listing of the first-chair musicians of the orchestra sections, let alone assembling brief biographical information. 

 

Below are links to the web pages covering the named orchestras.  Each orchestra page seeks to list all the Principal or "solo" musicians of each of these great orchestras, chronologically, during their histories, with a brief biographical sketch.

 

Your added or corrected information on any of these musicians would be welcome simply by contacting this site as shown at the foot of this page .

 

Listing of Principal Musicians of leading United States symphony orchestras include:

 

Boston Symphony Orchestra Principal Musicians

 

Chicago Symphony Orchestra Principal Musicians

 

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Principal Musicians

 

Cleveland Orchestra Principal Musicians

 

Detroit Symphony Orchestra Principal Musicians

 

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra Principal Musicians

 

New York Philharmonic Orchestra Principal Musicians

 

Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Musicians

 

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Principal Musicians

 

Russian Symphony Orchestra of New York Principal Musicians

 

Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra Principal Musicians

 

San Francisco Symphony Orchestra Principal Musicians

 

 

To read about these Principal Musicians, you may also click: 

 

Principal Musicians of Major American Symphony Orchestras

 

 

1   Leopold Stokowski portrait by Elias Goldensky circa 1923

 

Version française

 

 


If you have any comments or questions about this Leopold Stokowski site, please e-mail me (Larry Huffman) at e-mail address: leopold.stokowski@gmail.com 


 

Navigation Table of the  www.stokowski.org Site

Return to www.stokowski.org Home Page

Navigation: Acoustic Recordings of

Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra

Click on the link below

Navigation: Electrical Recordings of

Stokowski - Philadelphia Orchestra

Click on the link below

The Development of Acoustic Recording

The Development of Electrical Recording

Navigation: Other Stokowski Materials

Click on the link below

Pictures of Leopold Stokowski

 
 
 

Return to www.stokowski.org Home Page

 

L'Héritage de Stokowski - Accueil français

Victor Talking Machine Company, Eldridge Johnson, et le développement de la technologie d'enregistrement acoustique

1917 - 1924 les enregistrements acoustique Victor de Leopold Stokowski et l'Orchestre de Philadelphie

1917 -  Premiers enregistrements acoustique de Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

1917 - 1919 autres enregistrements acoustique Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

1920 - 1921 autres enregistrements acoustique Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

1922 - 1924 autres enregistrements acoustique Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

1919 - 1924 enregistrements acoustique Russe Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

1920 - 1924 enregistrements acoustique français - Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

1921 -1924 enregistrements acoustique Tchaïkovski - Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

1921 - 1924 enregistrements acoustique Wagner - Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

1924 enregistrements acoustique Rachmaninov - Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

 

Développement de l'enregistrement électrique

Permis d'exploitation du système Westrex donné à Victor et Columbia

1925 Premier enregistrement électrique Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

1925 autres enregistrements électriques Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

1926 enregistrements électriques Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

1927 enregistrements électriques Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

Encore des enregistrements 1927 électriques Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

1928 enregistrements électriques Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

1929 enregistrements électriques Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

1930 enregistrements électriques Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

1931 enregistrements électriques Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

1932 enregistrements électriques Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

1933 enregistrements électriques Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

1934 enregistrements électriques Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

Encore des enregistrements 1934 électriques Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

1935 enregistrements électriques Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

1936 enregistrements électriques Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

1937 enregistrements électriques Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie

1939-1940 enregistrements électriques Stokowski - Orchestre de Philadelphie