Until the end of the 1920s, we can see from Orchestra photographs that Stokowski's orchestral seating was the same as the traditional seating used by, for example, Toscanini.  Then, beginning in the second half of the 1930s with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and continuing with many orchestras for the rest of his career, Stokowski experimented with reseating the orchestra to gain better sound.   The picture below shows the changed orchestral seating of the Philadelphia Orchestra under Stokowski in 1939.   This 1939 experiment he did not retain long, with the woodwinds in the first two full semicircular front rows, brass against the wall to Stokowski's left, the horns and percussion to Stokowski's right.  The double basses were along the back wall, with the violins and violas in front of them.  The one feature of this arrangement which he retained in future years was the string bass section along the back wall.

   ^{Philadelphia, 1939}

With his All American Youth Orchestra of 1940, Stokowski again had the basses against the back wall, with the celli in front of them.  Also, the horns were to Stokowski's right with the percussion behind the horns. And again, the brass was against the wall to Stokowski's left, and the woodwinds were in a semi-circle in the first row in front of Stokowski, just as in 1939.  However, the violins were now in the more traditional position to Stokowski's left, although in the second row, behind the woodwinds.

Although Stokowski reseated the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1943, perhaps he did not systematically reseat all the orchestras he conducted.  In 1947, following Artur Rodzinski's abrupt departure from the New York Philharmonic, Stokowski was one of the conductors considered as Music Director.  As can be seen in the 1947 rehearsal photograph below, the New York Philharmonic seems to be in the conventional seating, with first and second violins to Stokowski's left, and the percussion in the back.  Other pictures from this rehearsal and of the concert in Carnegie Hall show the celli to Stokowski's right, and the basses to Stokowski's right in the back, in the traditional placement.  On the other hand, Stokowski during this period was being particularly careful with the orchestra, and the Board of Directors of the New York Philharmonic, seeming to avoid things that could be considered controversial or eccentric, so perhaps seating was also given the same treatment.  Take a look at this 1947 New York Philharmonic rehearsal.

   ^{New York, 1947}

By 1957, with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, as can be seen in the photograph below, Stokowski's seating had further evolved to a configuration which he seems to have used, but in various variations, for the next twenty years.  Again, string basses were against the back wall on very high risers nearly 2 meters high, with the celli directly in front, also on high risers of perhaps 1 meter in height.  First and second violins were seated on the stage floor to Stokowski's left, the traditional position.  Violas were to Stokowski's immediate right, with the horns sitting behind the violas, center right.  Woodwinds were to Stokowski's right, behind the violas, and the percussion were against the right wall, behind the woodwinds.

   ^{Houston, 1957}

As Stokowski states in the interview here, he was seeking, in part, better sound projection.  It is clear from what he did that this reseating was not an eccentric whim, but a well thought-out approach, with regular experimentation, to achieve a better orchestra sound.  Stokowski also altered his approach to seating according to the characteristics of the hall, and even according the the sound characteristics of individual musicians.

This interview is with Klaus George Roy, program annotator of the Cleveland Orchestra, and long-term friend of George Szell.  This interview is from the intermission of a broadcast of Stokowski's last performance with the Cleveland Orchestra on May 13, 1971.

Click here to list to Stokowski speaking about orchestral seating

As he expresses it, Stokowski believed that the traditional orchestral seating, with the violins and celli in the front, the string basses in the right rear (as seen by the audience), the woodwinds in the center back, and perhaps left back, the percussion against the back wall did not necessarily provide the best transmission of the sound of each different instrument.  He experimented with a number of different layouts over the years, and also varied such layouts according to the physical and acoustic layout of the hall in which the orchestra was performing.

I heard the results of this reseating with different orchestras in Philadelphia, Chicago and New York, I can say the result was favorable as to clarity and sound.  The differences were subtle, at least acoustically, but favorable.  In stereo recordings, the sound difference I find to be less marked, since the multiple microphone placement and audio mixing of the more sophisticated stereophonic recording technology would bring out various instruments in ways determined more by microphone placement than by seating (but then Stokowski insisted to determine microphone placement also).  In concert, however, I found the sound difference to be subtle, but effective. 

Visually, however, as can be seen in the photograph of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1939, the result is striking to anyone used to the traditional seating of the symphony orchestra.  For this reason, some traditionalists resented Stokowski's efforts as being mere showmanship.  It is said that Toscanini in particular resented the reseating of the NBC Symphony Orchestra.  Time Magazine of said "...The minute Stokowski took over at NBC he began making changes in the broadcasting technique of Toscanini's orchestra. He altered the traditional seating arrangement. He insisted that the stringed instrumentalists bow out of step, to produce the lush, powerful Stokowski tone..." ³.

However, these seatings, even for the same orchestra in the same hall would change from time to time as Stokowski sought the optimal result.  For example, with the American Symphony Orchestra in New York, I never saw a seating such as this 1939 photograph.  In Philadelphia, Chicago and New York in the 1960s, percussion was not in the front in the concerts I saw, but rather in the right back.  Also, the brass was not in the front, but either to the right, further back, or in the center toward the rear.  Horns and woodwinds were in front of the brass.  Violas might be in front of the horns, to Stokowski's right.  The string basses would either be along the back wall, so as to project their sound, or along the left wall, front to back, so that the natural sound projection of the instruments would be toward the audience.

This reflection of the string bass sound from the back wall or the left side wall of the orchestra shell in many halls seems to have helped achieve the bass sonority that was such an impressive feature of the Stokowski sound, both in performance and in recordings.

For example, in Symphony Hall Chicago, Stokowski would seat celli on his left, near the left wall, with first and second violins in front of the celli.  Woodwinds and brass were on his right, with violas in front of them.  Percussion was to the center-right toward the back.  The basses were along the back (although the stage of Symphony Hall Chicago does not have a tall back wall such as with an orchestra shell, but rather a wall of perhaps 15 meters height, up to a small balcony of seats, with the organ pipes then behind these seats).  

It seems that in later years and with most orchestras, this configuration I described for Chicago was Stokowski's preferred configuration, with the principal variation being whether the basses were along the back, or placed along the left wall, front of the stage to back of the stage.  Also, the woodwind placement seemed to vary.

Carnegie Hall in New York, venue for the American Symphony Orchestra concerts has a beautiful curving orchestra shell, with a full-height back wall, slightly curving into the left and right side walls.  In this case, Stokowski placed the string bases along the back wall earlier in the 1960s, and then along the left side in the later 1960s.

In addition to variations in the horizontal seating location of the musicians on the stage, Stokowski would also sometimes move them vertically.  As can be heard in this Stokowski interview, some halls such as Severance Hall, Cleveland had greater flexibility of risers and Stokowski would change the instruments also vertically.  He would place the basses on risers at the back or at the side, to allow better sound projection, with the celli perhaps also on risers in front of the basses, again at Stokowski's left. 

It is interesting that in the 1988 reconstruction of Symphony Hall Chicago, the stage was redesigned with a series of five, and in the back right, six different seating levels, facilitating the sound projection of the instruments.  Symphony Hall Chicago did have risers for the Orchestra previously, but of a more modest scale of perhaps three levels.