Leopold Stokowski
was mere slip of a lad in his seventies when he made these recordings of Bach
transcriptions in 1957-58 with his handpicked Symphony Orchestra. No doubt
people still find his orchestral arrangements of works originally written
either for solo organ or small baroque ensembles an acquired taste, to say the
least; but they’ve been around for so long and people have come to know them so
well, a lot of folks take them for granted as being entirely “Bach.” If you can
keep from making that mistake, you’ll get more fun out of the music.
This two-disc set
contains a seventy-minute CD of eleven of his famous Bach arrangements, plus a
DVD of a 1972 performance of Debussy’s
Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune, recorded live with the London Symphony
Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, London. More about that in a minute.
First, let’s have a brief look at the Bach, which begins with the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor,
continues with things like the “Little”
Fugue in G minor, the “Air on the G String” from the Orchestral Suite No. 3, the “Preludio” from the Violin Partita No. 3 among others, and,
of course, the celebrated Toccata and
Fugue in D minor to close the show.
I prefer the old man
doing the slower Bach items, Stokowski displaying a marvelous sensitivity and
eloquence in the gentler music, although there is no denying that the big
moments in the Toccatas come across
with an excitement that is quite invigorating, too. Sure, the purists among us
will continue to call Stokowski’s transcriptions corny or schmaltzy or
commercial bastardizations of great music. Yet I’m not so sure that Bach
himself wouldn’t have enjoyed them. Given the number of times Bach transcribed
his own music for different instruments, I don’t think he’d mind what Stokowski
did to it. Let’s put it another way: One should view Stokowski's arrangements
of Bach as alternatives to the real thing, not as substitutes for them. One can
go to the opera or symphony and still enjoy a good pop or rock concert. Well,
some of us can.
Best of all, EMI’s
sound, now over a half a century old, is fairly good for its age--reasonably
deep, firm, solid, and robust, somewhat compartmentalized perhaps, but well
spread out across the stereo stage. I slightly prefer this sound in Bach to
Stokowski’s later Phase-4 recordings for Decca, now also available on CD (in a
five-disc box, which contains some really great things). Even though EMI’s
late-Fifties’ sound may still seem highly engineered, it is a tad better
focused and better imaged than Decca’s, if not quite so spectacular.
The accompanying DVD
contains the Debussy; it’s done in color but in monaural sound. Still, it’s fun
to watch Stokowski at ninety counting the beats and waving his arms about,
without baton as was his practice from about 1929 onward. Interestingly, the
booklet note says he returned to London to conduct the London Philharmonic, but
the listing on the DVD says he’s leading the London Symphony Orchestra. Take
your pick. Also on the DVD, and of equal importance, is a promo for EMI’s
Archive series of DVDs, containing one or two-minute audio-video clips from
over two dozen performances by great artists of the twentieth century. Name the
performer, and he or she is probably here, from soloists to singers to
conductors. But, unfortunately, although EMI gave them individual tracks, the
company provided no menu selections for them and no listings in the booklet.
They are fascinating to watch, but if you want to find something in a hurry,
you’ll have to type up a listing of track selections for yourself. Oh, well....
To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:
JJP
JJP
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