Word: stokowsky
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Dvorak: The Stokowski Sound ("New World" Symphony; RCA Red Seal; 2 discs; $6.98). This two-record set of the familiar Symphony No. 9 in E Minor comprises the 92-year-old maestro's 1973 taping at Walthamstow Town Hall outside London with the New Philharmonia and a reissue of the same symphony recorded in 1927 when he led the Philadelphia Orchestra. Both readings are dramatic, reflecting the vigorous personality of the conductor. The new recording differs chiefly in tempo. Even with two repeats omitted in the Scherzo movement, the symphony runs some 5½ minutes longer, with a tediously...
...five-album, 15-LP release from RCA makes amends handsomely, if belatedly. The set contains, for example, not just the famous recording of the Second Concerto made with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1929 but also another version with the same performers from 1924. Then there is Rachmaninoff partnering Fritz Kreisler in a fancy-free performance of Beethoven's Violin Sonata in G, Op. 30, No. 3 (1928). There is a stupendous performance of Beethoven's 32 Variations in C Minor, which might well have been retitled 26 Variations since Rachmaninoff omitted variations...
...point at which the flow reversed and Disney's iconography began affecting high art can be identified almost to the frame: it happened when, in Fantasia, Mickey Mouse clambered up on the (real) podium and shook hands with the (real) conductor Leopold Stokowski. High and low art collapsed into one another. It was inevitably Mickey who made Stokowski more of a star by the handshake, not the other way round. The gesture made Pop art possible and, after a gestation of nearly 20 years, it duly arrived in a flurry of mice: Roy Lichtenstein is said to have happened...
...musical forms are routine for Bender who, as music editor since 1968, has written TIME cover stories on subjects ranging from the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar to Soprano Beverly Sills to Singer-Composer James Taylor. Three years ago, a documentary that he wrote for television on Conductor Leopold Stokowski was awarded an Emmy. In fact, Bender is fascinated by all forms of musical expression...
...flying, he seems to spring from the wings. The leap to the podium is agile and sure; the bow to the audience curt, formal and, in the European tradition, from the waist, with the heels brought together in something just this side of a click. At this point, a Stokowski would spin showily and attack immediately. Not Solti. He turns thoughtfully, spreads his feet and shoots slitty glances around to make sure all is ready. Then, with a slashing, totally unexpected paroxysm involving every part of his body, he gives the downbeat. Throughout the performance, Solti's body language...