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Includes the only known recording of Stokowski conducting music by Walton
Notes on the recording: These recordings were sent to Pristine by Edward Johnson, one of the guiding lights of the Stokowski Society, musicologist and author of "Stokowski - Essays in Analysis of His Art", taken from recordings held in his private collection, none of which have previously been issued. In his letter to me, Johnson stated: "...the Walton is on this CD purely because it's Stokowski's only extant performance of any of Walton's music. But sonically it is dreadful and not release material. I only put it there for your interest...". Whether or not he intended this to be a subtle challenge I don't know, but I don't really think so. However, given the historic importance of the recording (Stokowski is known to have conducted very occasionally other works by Walton in the concert hall, but no recordings of these are thought to exist), I decided to take it on and see what could be achieved. After making initial inroads on the sound, I sent a work-in-progress sample to Edward for his comments: "Wow ... That's pretty amazing ! ... Like I said, it was recorded onto a primitive glass acetate disc, off the air, by someone called Charles ("Jack") Baumgarten who was later to become Stokowski's assistant during the Maestro's last years. This came from a tape copy he gave me. I guess he started the recording after the announcements had finished and and stopped it as soon as the applause began ... it's great that you can work on it as I'd never have thought it would be issuable material! ... The violin solo was most probably John Corigliano, who was I think concert-master at the time..." After much further work I reached the point where I felt I'd done as much for it as possible - numerous bumps, holes, thumps and other extraneous noises were fixed, the sound further refined and evened out, and I was happy to add the recording to this collection. There remains a small degree of distortion towards the end of the piece, and some low-level surface crackle proved impervious to processing, but otherwise it's a fine example of a very spirited performance. Of the other recordings, the Vaughan Williams was a fine studio effort - its US debut recording no less. The piece was too long for 78rpm playback and so three further takes were attempted of a version shortened by the conductor by excising sections of the music, the final take running to 4'04" and given the matrix number XCO41010-1 for release. This first-take full-length recording was left in the vaults and only recently rediscovered. The Schumann that forms the heart of this set is, according to Edward Johnson "a much better performance than the one he recorded for RCA the following year with "his Symphony Orchestra" and the sound, while very good, could be made even better...". The sound quality of the Enescu was pretty much the same - both came from later rebroadcasts - and I'm glad to report Edward's response to my remastering efforts just prior to our release: "I downloaded the MP3 file and it sounds wonderful!"
Notes on the 24-bit download: Please see this page for test files and further information regarding this format. Although restoration work is done at a sample rate of 44.1kHz, we have upsampled the final 24-bit master to 48kHz for additional replay compatibility of our FLAC download. Our twenty-four bit FLAC downloads can be replayed in full quality using a standard DVD video player, a DVD writer and an inexpensive piece of PC software - see here for more information about replay from Video DVD discs.
Leopold Stokowski biographical notes from The Stokowski Society
Born in London in 1882 of Polish-Irish origin, Leopold Stokowski showed an early aptitude for music, entering the Royal College of Music at the age of thirteen. He sang in the choir of St Marylebone Church, becoming Assistant Organist to Sir Henry Walford Davies at The Temple Church, and in 1900 formed the choir of St Mary's, Charing Cross Road. He took his Bachelor of Music Degree at Queen's College, Oxford, became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, and in 1902 was appointed Choirmaster at St. James's Church, Piccadilly. In 1905 he took up a similar appointment at St. Bartholomew's, New York City, and it was in America that his career was to flourish. He moved from the organ loft to the orchestral podium when he made his concert debuts in Paris and London in 1909, and that same year he was appointed conductor of the Cincinnati Orchestra. Three years later he took over the Philadelphia Orchestra, a position he was to retain for a quarter of a century, during which time he transformed a provincial ensemble into a world class orchestra noted for its precision, virtuosity and tone-colour. At the end of 1930s, Stokowski left Philadelphia to form the All-American Youth Orchestra and co-conduct the NBC Symphony with Toscanini. By this time he had appeared in a few films, notably the 1940 production of Walt Disney's Fantasia. Within a few years he had founded the New York City and Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestras, and in the late 1940s he became a chief Guest Conductor with the New York Philharmonic. From 1951 Stokowski began a new career abroad making frequent guest appearances with the world's finest orchestras. From 1955-61 he was Music Director of the Houston Symphony Orchestra and in 1962 he founded the American Symphony Orchestra. In 1963 he made his debut at the Sir Henry Wood "Proms" in London - the first 'International conductor' to do so - and his concerts there included a memorable Proms premiere of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony. In 1972 Stokowski returned to England, where he remained until his death, giving many memorable concerts and making recordings almost until the day he died. David Mellor wrote in Gramophone: "One of the great joys of recent years for me has been the reassessment of Leopold Stokowski... he is now recognized as the father of modern orchestral standards. He possessed a truly magical gift of extracting a burnished sound from both great and second-rank ensembles. He also loved the process of recording and his gramophone career was a constant quest for a better recorded sound. But the greatest pleasure of all for me is his acceptance now as an outstanding conductor of nineteenth- and twentieth-century music, including a lot that was at the cutting edge of contemporary achievement."
The Stokowski Society: http://www.stokowskisociety.net
Schumann - Symphony No. 2 musical notes from Wikipedia
The Symphony in C major by German composer Robert Schumann was published in 1847 as his Symphony No. 2, Op. 61, although it was the third symphony he had completed, counting the B-flat major symphony published as No. 1 in 1841, and the original version of his D minor symphony of 1841 (later revised and published as No. 4). The symphony was sketched in 1845, but his depression and poor health prevented him finishing the work until October 1846. In the face of this adversity the uplifting tone of the symphony is remarkable. It is written in the traditional four-movement form, and as often in the nineteenth century the Scherzo precedes the Adagio. All four movements are in C major, except the first part of the slow movement (in C minor); the work is thus homotonal:
The first movement begins with a slow Introduction brass chorale, elements of which recur through the piece. (Schumann wrote the Six organ Fugues on B-A-C-H, Op. 60, at about this time, and this preoccupation with Bach suggests a chorale prelude, a quintessential Bachian genre, in the texture and feeling of the symphony's opening.) The following Sonata-Allegro is dramatic and turbulent. It is characterized by sharp rhythmic formulae (double-dotted rhythms) and by the masterly transformation of the material of the Introduction. The second movement is a scherzo in C major with two trios, whose main portion strongly emphasizes the diminished chord - its characteristic gesture being a rapid and playful resolution of this chord over unstable harmony. The Adagio espressivo, is a sonata movement in C minor, with the character of an elegy, its middle section strongly contrapuntal in texture. The finale is in a very freely treated sonata form, its second theme related to the opening theme of the Adagio. Later in the movement, a new theme appears: this theme has, as its sources of inspiration, the last song from Beethoven's cycle "An die ferne Geliebte" (cf. also Schumann's piano Fantasy in C, Op. 17), as well as Beethoven's "Ode to Joy." The coda of the Finale recalls the material from the Introduction, thereby thematically spanning the entire work. A typical performance lasts between 35 and 40 minutes. Notes from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._2_(Schumann)
Further information from Wikipedia:
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