SOMM recordings is delighted to release Frankly Speaking with Leopold Stokowski, which gives rare insight into the legendary maestro through live recordings of a performance, a rehearsal, and an interview. The CD features Stokowski conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestraand soprano Gloria Lane in a performance of El amor brujoby Manuel de Falla at the Royal Albert Hall on 15 September 1964; a rehearsal of El amor brujoand Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra at the War Memorial Opera House on 19 December 1952; and a Frankly SpeakingBBC Home Service interview with Stokowski answering questions put to him by John Bowen, Reginald Jacques, and George Scott at the BBC Studios in London on 25 August 1959.
Leopold Stokowski’s unorthodox seating arrangements, his flexibility regarding free individual string bowings, his emphasis on vibrato and tone, and his idiosyncratic baton-less conducting technique, were some of the practical elements that defined his popularity and his uniquely lush sound—coupled with allowing himself free reign to alter details of the musical text in his performances. Yet there remains a highly elusive element in the art of a great conductor. The rehearsal presented on this release provides a glimpse into Stokowski’s creative process. One the one hand, he was fastidiously detailed and precisely demanding to the point of being draconian, but he also admired and encouraged an element of spontaneity, and even improvisation, within the framework of his extreme insistence on precision.
The performance of El amor brujo—one of Stokowski’s favourite compositions—was recorded at a BBC Promenade concert, and provides a stellar example of the effect that he was able to achieve through his singular and charismatic approach to making music. The extended interview, heard here for the first time since its original radio broadcast in 1959, illustrates the brilliant repartee, levity, and charm of which this extraordinary musician was capable.
Through the breadth of his public success—including his appearance in the film Fantasia and, even more significantly, his recordings as the Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, which he led from 1912 to 1936—Leopold Stokowski reached a more wide-ranging audience than was typical for classical music in his day, and did much to debunk the perception that classical music is “elitist.” Together, Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra racked up international sales figures that were unprecedented for orchestral discs, attracted a far-reaching following, and captivated an audience that ranged from classical music newcomers to some of his most celebrated fellow musicians.
On This Recording
Manuel de Falla
El amor brujo (1924 Version) (24:00)a
- I. Introducción y escena (0:33)
- II. En la cueva (La noche) (1:57)
- III. Canción del amor dolido (1:49)
- IV. El aparecido (0:10)
- V. Danza del terror (1:45)
- VI. El círculo mágico (Romance del pescador) (2:12)
- VII. A media noche (Los sortilegios) (0:24)
- VIII. Danza ritual del fuego (3:05)
- IX. Escena (1:33)
- X. Canción del fuego fatuo (1:43)
- XI. Pantomima (4:31)
- XII. Danza del juego de amor (2:33)
- XIII. Final (Las campanas del amanecer) (1:42)
- El amor brujo Suite (rehearsal excerpt) (13:01)b
Hector Berlioz
- Le Carnaval romain, Op. 9 (rehearsal excerpt) (8:53)b
- Frankly Speaking – Leopold Stokowski answers questions put to him by John Bowen, Reginald Jacques, George Scott (29:07)
aGloria Lane, soprano; BBC Symphony Orchestra; Hugh Maguire, leader
bSan Francisco Symphony Orchestra
Leopold Stokowski, conductor
Reviews:
“a fiery and fascinating example of Stokowski’s conducting, with two adjuncts in the rehearsals and the previously unreleased radio broadcast to add … ballast” —Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International