Word: stokowskis
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...those 30 years, the orchestra has been famed for "the Philadelphia sound." What exactly is that? Very simple, says Ormandy: "It's me! My sound is what it is because I was a violinist. Toscanini was always playing the cello when he conducted, Koussevitzky the double bass, Stokowski the organ." Ormandy plays one big lush violin. His music is coated with the satiny sheen of wall-to-wall strings, a sound that readily lends itself to the works of the romantics-Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Debussy, Brahms...
When he arrived in Philadelphia, the little, heavily accented conductor was received coolly by the Main Line matrons, who for 22 years had yearned over the bony Polish profile of Leopold Stokowski and his evocative hands. But Ormandy took charge. He developed the classical side of the orchestra's repertory, which Stokowski had scorned, and became a tireless promoter of new works. Today, when he schedules a particularly difficult modern piece, he invites the audience to rehearsals so that they will be better prepared. The result, he says proudly, is that "I receive 200 enthusiastic letters instead...
...something else." Indeed he did, and as a virtual recluse who had never heard a note of Schoenberg, he set down his inner music, delving into dissonance and polytonality in 1916. The work was not played until 50 years after it was written, and this first recording by Leopold Stokowski and the American Symphony Orchestra celebrates the long-delayed recognition of a major composer...
ANNA MOFFO/LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI (RCA Victor). Miss Moffo sings Brazilian Com poser-Conductor Heitor Villa-Lobos' wanton Bachianas Brasileiras in a way that would excite Bach or any gypsy. Her voice has both richness and fluidity; her mood shifts with the song like quicksilver. In Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne, she settles unfortunately into simpering sentimentality, which is not relieved by Stokowski's painfully slow pace...
...sneezes, the score was alive with musical snorts and snickers, hiccups and heehaws. It was one of the most difficult symphonies ever played -more, in fact, than any one conductor could handle. To help referee such rowdy goings-on as 27 different rhythms being played at the same time, Stokowski stationed auxiliary conductors in the string and percussion sections. Miraculously, they shaped all the disparate elements into a musical experience of rare delight. The Fourth Symphony was a masterpiece, another great work from what an increasing number of people believe is America's greatest composer...