Leopold Stokowski Orchestrations

As described in the short Biography of Leopold Stokowski, as an organist in New York, prior to his conducting career, Stokowski transcribed many orchestral works for the organ. The 1907 advertisement for a Wagner - Palestrina concert, below, is one example.

These transcriptions were, of course, orchestral scores transcribed for the organ. Transcription of Stokowski's favorite organ and other keyboard works for orchestra were a natural counterpart. He seems to have wanted to present his favorite music in whatever medium he happened to be working.

Stokowski Orchestration of Music of Johann Sebastian Bach

Stokowski's love of Bach is of course not surprising, given his ten years as a church organist. Stokowski made at least 37 orchestrations or transcriptions of the music of Bach. His first transcription seems to have been prepared in the Summer of 1914 during Leopold and Olga Stokowski's stay at their villa in Munich. This was of the aria from Saint John's Passion "Es ist vollbracht", BWV 245, which Stokowski eventually recorded with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1934 on a double sided 10 inch Victor Red Seal disk Victor 1985.

The first Stokowski orchestration of a Bach organ work for full symphony orchestra which Stokowski performed with orchestra was of the Passacaglia and Fugue in c minor BWV 582, which Stokowski premiered with the orchestra on February 10, 1922². Stokowski later recorded the Passacaglia in 1929 (click on 1929 Bach Passacaglia and Fugue to read about and listen to this transcription.) He also performed it several times during every Philadelphia Orchestra season he conducted from 1922 to 1940, except only in 1928 and 1933.

In a later interview, Stokowski stated that the first Bach work he orchestrated was the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582. However, the first Bach orchestration, or perhaps better described as an arrangement was the 'Wachet auf' portion of the famous cantata of 1731 ('Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme', or 'Sleepers Awake!', BWV 140), which the superb Stokowski Concert Register of Robert M. Stumpf, II lists as being performed March 19 and 20, 1915. The famous transcription of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra in February 1926, and at the concerts of December 8 and 9, 1926, Stokowski premiered his Bach transcription of "Komm Susser Tod", arranged for viola and string orchestra.

There have been a number of authors seeking to demonstrate that Stokowski did not himself orchestrate these works, in particular claiming that Lucien Cailliet of the Philadelphia Orchestra created the orchestrations, rather than simply transcribing them. However, the image below of the Stokowski manuscript of BWV 565 from the University of Pennsylvania Library archives shows the orchestration in Stokowski's own hand.

Stokowski orchestration of Bach Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565

Orchestration of French Music

In his orchestration of Debussy's Préludes I no 10 - 'La cathédrale engloutie', he used a contrabass clarinet in his orchestration, perhaps inspired by his re-orchestration necessary with acoustic recordings to reinforce or even replace string bass instruments which did not record effectively in the acoustic process.

In fact during the mid 1920s, the Philadelphia Orchestra employed a full time contrabass clarinet. Frédérick Parme was the orchestra's contrabass clarinetist from 1925 to 1927, continuing Stokowski's practice of hiring predominantly French-trained wind players.

The Stokowski orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition

The Stokowski orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, is another famous transformation. Source books indicate that Mikhail Tushmalov (1861-1896), a lesser Russian composer was the first to orchestrate Pictures in about 1891, but including only of 7 of the 10 pictures. Sir Henry Wood also produced an orchestration of Pictures in 1915, but he apparently also made major changes to the original composition rather than a faithful orchestration of the piano composition. Ravel produced his famous orchestration of the complete 10 pictures in 1922 under a commission by Serge Koussevitzky.

Stokowski introduced the Ravel orchestration of Mussorgsky's piano work in November, 1929, after Koussevitzky's performance exclusivity of the Ravel orchestration ended. In the late 1930's, Stokowski made his own orchestration, which was given its premier in Philadelphia on November, 17 1939, and recorded by RCA Victor in the Academy of Music the following week.