1927 Season - Stokowski takes leave of the Philadelphia Orchestra
Stokowski conducted his last concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra in April, 1927 at the end of the
1926 - 1927 season. By this time, he had conducted the Philadelphians for 15 years, and he seems to
have wished for a break.
He had long planned to take a vacation, but during 1926, following his marriage to Evangeline Johnson,
whom Leopold had married in January, 1926, this planned vacation developed into a prolonged "
leave of absence" from Philadelphia.
The reasons Stokowski gave for this leave were various, including discomfort in holding the baton (or baguette,
the French term, as he preferred to call it). He also mentioned later a 1927 taxicab accident in
New York City, which Stokowski said had injured him.
Regarding the baton, Oliver Daniel states "...During the year Stoki complained frequently of neuritis.
He was still using a baton and during concerts it was noticed that he often shifted it from one hand to the other.
It will always remain a mystery whether the problems of neuritis were as serious as they seemed or whether it
was a partial excuse to obtain a year's leave..."1 [page 205 op. cit.].
Perhaps Stokowski simply needed a prolonged rest from the Philadelphia Orchestra. In any case, from November, 1927
until early September, 1928, Leopold Stokowski and Evangeline Johnson Stokowski traveled to Europe and Asia1.
November 24, 1927 publicity article about Stokowski's trip to Europe and Asia
September 7, 1928 - Stokowski and Evangeline Arrive Back in New York
Leopold arrived back in New York on September 7, 1928 on the SS Orinoco from Southampton, England
with Evangeline and Luba Stokowski (whom her father called Lyuba). Evangeline and Luba had
boarded at Boulogne, France, and Leopold joined them on board at Southampton. Leopold and Evangeline
had previously reunited with Lyuba in Switzerland, after which they went to Paris at the end of the
Summer of 1928. Stokowski at some point went on to London.
Stokowski on board SS Orinoco from Southampton from Southampton with Lyuba 2
1927 - A Year of Extensive Stokowski Recording
During this period of international travel, and because he missed the Philadelphia Orchestra season of
1927 - 1928, Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra of course did not record.
However, the year of 1927, prior to Stokowski's departure, was one of Stokowski's most intensive and also
most successful recording periods, with Victor apparently intending to fill its vaults with Stokowski recordings
to carry them over until late 1928.
This intensive recording program of Stokowski and the Philadelphians extended from March until late
October, 1927, just before he and Evangeline departed to New York and then via ship to Europe to begin
their extended travels.
Stokowski's Victor Red Seal recordings during 1927 included Bach, Berlioz, Bizet,
Debussy, Glazunov, Ippolitov-Ivanov, Liszt, the Stravinsky Firebird Suite and four major
symphonies: Beethoven Symphony no 7, Brahms Symphony no 1, the Franck Symphony in D minor and a new
recording of the Dvorak 'New World' Symphony. Even with all this intensive explosion of creativity,
each of these symphonies are among the most inspired recordings ever made by Stokowski during his
60 years in the recording studio. They are also among the first electrical recordings to provide
listeners with the sound picture which Stokowski so assiduously cultivated in his orchestral performances.
1927 - Wagner - Götterdämmerung - Closing Scene
On January 6, 1927, Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra
began their 1927 recording sessions with Wagner. They
recorded the last three sides of Wagner's Overture to Rienzi,
begun in November, 1926 (
click here to read about the 1926 Rienzi
).
Then, as a 'filler', they recorded and additional side of the
Closing Scene from Wagner's die Götterdämmerung.
This is the music after Brünnhilde has ridden Grane onto
her funeral pyre. The Rhine overflows, Hagen attempts
to seize the ring, but the Rhine maidens regain it.
In the distance, the sky is filled with fire, Valhalla is
revealed consumed in flames. Valhalla then collapses
with Wotan and the gods seated within. Brünnhilde,
through her love for Siegfried has cleansed the world of its
corruption. Underlining this transformation, the key of
the final music changes from E flat to D flat, concluding
Wagner's four operas telling the story of the Ring.
This of course is a dramatic story and dramatic music, and
is matched by a stirring performance by Stokowski, although
perhaps lacking the ultimate magic of Stokowski's
1933 recording of this music. The score of
this closing scene is slightly cut. Music
that usual takes about 5 1/2 minutes to play, is
cut to just over 4 minutes so as to fit onto one 78 RPM 12
inch side. The playing by the Philadelphia
Orchestra is at the peak of its form, with silky, lush strings,
and a performance that is dramatic, yet not
over-blown. Have a listen.
On Thursday, March 10, 1927, on Saturday, April 30, and then on the following Monday, May 2,
Stokowski and the Philadelphians recorded a number of excerpts from George Bizet's 1873 opéra-comique Carmen.
First, on March 10 in the Academy of Music, they recorded two 10 inch Victor Red Seal sides, the
Prélude to Act 1 of Carmen and the prelude to Act 4, entitled "Aragonaise".
The prelude to Act 1, matrix number BVE 22812-5 was on the first side of Victor
Red Seal 10 inch disk 1356, and the prelude to Act 4, 'Aragonaise', matrix BVE 38211-1
was on the other side. This Prelude to Act 4 begins with a gorgeous oboe solo by
Marcel Tabuteau. This oboe theme continues to be interweaved throughout the piece.
Also, after you download the music, listen to the flair and beautiful sheen of the
Philadelphia strings ! What a beautiful performance, and in
excellent sound for the period.
The following April 30, 1927, from Carmen, Stokowski then recorded the prelude
to Act 3 entitled 'Intermezzo', and the entr'acte, or prelude, entitled
'Les dragons d'Alcala' which occurs between Act 1 and Act 2 of the
opera. Les dragons were the soldiers stationed in Seville,
and one of whom is Don José. The musich of the Intermezzo and of
'Dragons d'Alcala' music were combined by Stokowski on one side of a 12 inch
Victor Red Seal disc 6873, matrix CVE 37494-2. What beautiful playing of the
Intermezzo theme ! On the other side of this Victor
disk 6873 is the Gypsy Dance from Act 2, matrix number CVE 37498-1.
William Kincaid
, flute and
Daniel Bonade
, clarinet, and the strings of the Philadelphia Orchestra
are at the top of their form. 89 musicians made this
recording, including 33 violins, 9 String basses, 4 flutes
and 4 oboes, 6 horns, and generally the full orchestra.
This recording shows
what a great symphony orchestra the Philadelphia had become under Stokowski, arguably unsurpassed
in the world (at least on the surviving evidence of recordings of the period).
Daniel Bonade, clarinet and William Kincaid, flute in their later years
These two excerpts were issued on the first side of a 12 inch Victor Red Seal 6873, matrix number CVE-37494.
In the last Bizet session that year on May 2, they recorded three other excerpts from the Carmen Suite.
First was the "Gypsy Dance" or "Danse Bohème" from Act 2 issued on
the second side of Victor Red Seal 6873, recorded on matrix number CVE-37498-1. This was followed
by the "March of the smugglers" or "Marche des contrebandiers" from Act 3 and the
"Soldiers changing the Guard", or "Avec la garde montante" from Act 1.
These excerpts had been recorded only 4 years previously using the acoustic process (see the
1923 versions of "Avec la garde montante" and "Marche des contrebandiers"
).
"Marche des contrebandiers" was issued on one
side of Victor Red Seal 12 inch disk 6874,
matrix CVE-27902-2 and "Avec la garde montante",
matrix CVE-27903-2 was on the other side. The
sound of the Marche des contrebandiers, while
good is not so transparent and wide ranged as,
for example, the Danse Bohème.
1927 - Carmen Music Download
Overall the sound of these discs are remarkably
good for only two years after the introduction
of electrical recording, and even by today's
standards, especially in the
Danse Bohème. The musical excerpts below are listed in
the order of their appearance in the opera, Act by Act, since the
original 78 RPM albums do not indicate any particularly order, and
the disks were all sold separately.
1927 - Debussy 'Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun'
Stokowski's other March 1927 recording sessions
began on March 3 when he recorded the Debussy
'Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun' ('Prélude à
l'après-midi d'un faune') and March 10, which,
as well as the Carmen excerpts, they finished
revised side for the 1926 Liszt Hungarian
Rhapsody no 2.
The Debussy 'Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun'
('Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune') begins
with a gorgeous flute solo played by
William Kinkaid.
1927 Bach - Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV
565
Then on April 6, Stokowski recorded the very
first of his famous Bach organ transcriptions
for full orchestra: the Toccata and Fugue in D
minor. This was Stokowski's first recording of
one of his orchestrations of a Bach organ work,
and his most well known to the public. The
richly upholstered, rubato filled orchestral
texture is not an effect to which I have become
accustomed, even with many re-hearings.
The more transparent Bach organ works, such as
the Bach Passacaglia and Fugue BWV 582, work
better, particularly in a lighter orchestration.
Stokowski argued that, except for these
orchestrations, the public was unlikely to have
access to these great works of Bach.
Listen, and judge for yourself.
April, 1927 also witnessed the first American recording of the complete
Beethoven Symphony no 7, and what a fantastic recording it was.
Stokowski was not thought of as one of the leading conductors of
Beethoven, as were Furtwängler, Toscanini, Weingartner, or even Mengelberg or
Koussevitzky. Stokowski never recorded all nine Beethoven symphonies,
either commercially or privately. However, in these series of 1927
recordings of the majestic pillars of the classical music repertoire,
such as the 1927 Brahms Symphony no 1, the 1927 Schéhérazade, the 1927
Dvorak New World symphony, and this Beethoven Symphony no 7, Stokowski and
the Philadelphia Orchestra were at their blazing best. Also, I
believe that the recorded quality Stokowski and Victor obtained in the
Academy of Music in Philadelphia were unmatched by other orchestras and
recording companies of the late 1920s.
In 1927, Stokowski also adopted the
felicitous practice of adding a side of
explanation to his listeners of major works
being recorded, explaining themes
and structure. Although to some,
today, these Stokowski talks seem
superficial and exaggerated as to content,
it should be kept in mind that for many and
perhaps most listeners, this would be their
first hearing of the work being performed.
In fact, given the infancy of radio, and the
fact that movies were still silent at that
time, these recordings could well be many
listeners first exposure to orchestral
music.
Please click on the links below to listen to (download)
this recording, including the Stokowski analysis
to themes and structure of this symphony, which
was issued by Victor as M-17 in the Musical
Masterpiece series.
Stokowski's Score of Beethoven Symphony no 7 Mvmt 4
1927 - Schubert - Moment musical no 3 in f minor D780
Just after the Beethoven Symphony no 7, on April 6, 1927 in the Academy of
Music, Stokowski and the Philadelphians recorded the Schubert Moment musical no
3 in F minor (D780-3) entitled 'Russian Melody', in Stokowski's
orchestration. This is a remake of the
Schubert work that Stokowski recorded acoustically
five years earlier, and that
he would record again several times, including with the London Symphony
Orchestra 45 years later in one of the famous Decca/London Phase 4 Stereo
Concert Series recordings.
Then, during April 25, 26, and 27 in the Academy
of Music in Philadelphia, Stokowski and the
Philadelphians recording one of their most
famous and satisfying recordings: the 1927 Brahms
Symphony no 1 in C minor.
Stokowski, throughout his career, was one of the great
conductors of Brahms's Symphony no 1. Also,
Stokowski seems to have programmed the Brahms First or
the Brahms Third at critical points of his career, where
the success of a concert was important for him.
1927 was a red-hot year for Stokowski in memorable
recordings, and this Brahms Symphony no 1 certainly is
one of the finest performances of the Brahms and one of
Stokowski's finest achievements.
This 1927 recording, issued as Victor M-15 stayed in the Victor
catalog, selling well year after year, until the 1936 recording of the
work issued on M-301. The 1936 Brahms, while well played, does not
(in my humble opinion) match the inspiration, sweep, and orchestral
brilliance of this 1927 performance.
1927 - Schubert Symphony no 8 in b minor 'Unfinished'
Monday, April 25 through Thursday, April 28, and Saturday, April 30,
and the following Monday and Tuesday, May 2 and 3, 1927 were intensive
recording sessions for Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. (The
concerts in the Academy of Music on April 29 and 30 were the final concerts
of the 1927-1927 Philadelphia Orchestra season). These recording
sessions also produced some of the most successful recordings they ever made
together: finishing the Symphony no 7 in A, the Brahms Symphony no 1 in c,
and the Symphony no 8 in b 'Unfinished'.
Each of these recording may well have been the finest recordings Stokowski
made of these works, including during the fifty years of recording yet
ahead of Stokowski. This was certainly the case for the Brahms Symphony
no 1 and the Schubert 'Unfinished', which Stokowski never surpassed (in my
opinion) with the Philadelphia or other orchestra recordings.
Also, the sound of these 1927 recordings is remarkably clear, clean, and
wide-ranging, particularly considering that Victor had been using the
electrical recording process only two years. Contemporary U.S. and
European orchestra recordings of the era do not match these three works
either in interpretation, or in sound. Also, Stokowski brought a
concentration, and inspiration, and a breadth and depth of vision to these
recordings that were somehow lacking in his later efforts. This was
indeed a miraculous year for Stokowski, the Philadelphians and for Victor.
Recall that Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra made a recording for
Victor of this Schubert symphony using the acoustic recording process
almost exactly 3 years previously. It is interesting that the
timing of each of the two movements are within seconds of each other
in both the acoustic and the electrical versions, running a total of
about 22 1/2 minutes.
Enjoy listening to this fine performance of the Schubert
'Unfinished' symphony by clicking on the links, below.
1927 - Carl Maria von Weber - Invitation to the Dance
In 1919, Stokowski and the Philadelphians had
made a fine recording of Carl Maria von Weber's
Invitation to the Dance opus 65, in the
orchestration by Felix Weingartner. Now,
in the Academy of Music Stokowski recorded what
was probably his finest recording of this work,
this time in the Berlioz orchestration.
The Weber "Invitation to the Dance" (Aufforderung zum Tanz),
opus 65 was recorded May 2,1927 in the Academy of Music, and
issued on a Victor 12 inch double faced Red Seal disk Victor 6643 matrix
CVE 37495-1 and CVE 37496-2. The performance and sound are
both fully satisfying, with and openness and freedom that Stokowski
did not seem to capture in his later recordings with the Philadelphia
Orchestra, with his All-American Youth Orchestra, or with "His" symphony
orchestra. The precision and detail of the playing of the Philadelphia
Orchestra in this recording may have been less than would be their trademark
in the second half of the twentieth century but it remains fully satisfying.
Also, it is in precision, detail and ensemble that the contemporary leading
European orchestras seem to be lacking, at least as witnessed by their
recordings.
1
On this 1927 - 1928 voyage,
Leopold and Evangeline sailed to France (with Lyuba who was left with
friends in France), and from there to Jerusalem. Their
travels thereafter were extensive: Damascus, Bagdad, Karachi, Bombay.
In India, they traveled extensively around the sub-continent. Then
to Burma, Djakarta, Bali. They then returned to Switzerland to be
reunited with Lyuba, and then back to Paris. [Oliver Daniel, p. 207 op.
cit...]
2
Photo from Musical America magazine, September 15, 1928
Note on listening to the Stokowski recordings:
The recordings in this site are files in mp3 format (128 mbps)
encoded from my recordings. Links to the mp3 files are located in two places:
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 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.
The mp3 files in this site are encoded at 128 mbps. This means that the
files are of different sizes, according to the length of
the music. For example, the second electrical recording, the
April 29, 1925 Borodin ‘Polovetzki Dances’ is small (3.6MB). In contrast,
the 1929 Le Sacre du Printemps file is large. Le Sacre part 1 is 14MB
and Le Sacre part 2 is 16MB.
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 -
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.
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
