Stokowski Plays Bach Vinyl LP Record VG+

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Stokowski Plays Bach Vinyl LP Record VG+
Record Grade per Goldmine Standard: VG+
STOKOWSKI PLAYS BACH Toccata and Fugue in D minor Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor Komm, siisser Tod "Little" Fugue in G minor Sarabande from the Violin Partita in B minor Ein f este Burg ist unser Gott Shepherds' Song LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI conducting his Symphony Orchestra in the famed Bach-Stokowski transcriptions SIDE ONE (24:17) Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV. 582 (14:37) Says Stokowski: "The most free and sublime instrumental expressions of Bach are his greater organ works, and of these the greatest is the Passa- caglia in C minor. Its content is so full and significant that its medium of expression is of relative unimpor- tance; whether played on the organ, or on the greatest of all instruments, the orchestra, it is one of the most divinely inspired contrapuntal works ever conceived." Interestingly Bach first composed the C minor Passaca- glia for double-manual harpsichord, later reworking it for organ. Komm, siisser Tod, BWV. 478 (5:50) Stokowski's orchestration of the poignant religious song Komm, siisser Tod—Come, sweet death—is of sur- passing loveliness, tenderly and mov- ingly communicating the piety that surrounded lohann Sebastian Bach all his life. "Little" Fugue in G minor, BWV. 578 (3:50) The sprightly rhythms and catchy melodic strains of this work depict Bach in a lighthearted vein and Sto- kowski's orchestra in a mood of jubilation. SIDE TWO (26:41) Sarabande from the Violin Partita in B minor, BWV. 1002 (4:30) From the towering work in all music for unaccompanied violin, Stokow- ski's transcription excerpts the Sara- bande of the Partita No. 1. A Partita is a collection of dances. The Sarabande is the slow movement, a solemn dance in % which probably came into North- ern Europe from Spain. Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (2:55) Stokowski has often recorded his adaptation of this beautiful chorale melody, a setting of the Lutheran hymn "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." Shepherds' Song from the Christmas Oratorio, BWV. 248 (9:29) Bach's Christmas Oratorio consisted of six cantatas, created to be sung, one at a time, on six successive days at Christmas time. Much of the Orato- rio's music Bach borrowed from his earlier non-religious drama "The Choice of Hercules," written to honor the birthday of the youthful Electoral Prince of Saxony. Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV. 565 (9:32) The impact upon Bach's popular- ity of this famous transcription was greater, perhaps, than any single force since Felix Mendelssohn gave Bach's reputation new impetus by res- urrecting the "St. Matthew Passion." Stokowski writes: "Of all the music of Bach, this Toccata and Fugue is among the freest in form and expres- sion. Bach was in the habit of impro- vising on the harpsichord and organ, and his Toccata probably began as an improvisation in the church of St. Thomas in Leipzig. In this lengthy, narrow, high church with a reverbera- tion period of 3.5 seconds, the thun- dering harmonies must have echoed long and tempestuously, for this music has a power and majesty that is cosmic. One of its main characteristics is immense freedom of rhythm, and plasticity of melodic outline. In the sequence of harmonies it is bold and path-breaking. Its tonal architecture is irregular and asymmetric. Of all the creations of Bach, this is one of the most original. Its inspiration flows unendingly. In spirit it is universal, so that it will always be contempo- rary and have a direct message for all men." Leopold Stokowski's conducting career commenced in his teens at the Paris Conservatory. It finds him in his 90's still conducting, magnificently, concerts and recordings acclaimed by critics and beloved by the listening public. No other conductor, not Toscanini, not Furtwangler, created quite the mystical aura that Stokowski gathered about him early on and has main- tained throughout nine decades. True greatness as a musician was unargu- ably his. Stokowski enhanced and magnified his status with a personal image that was pure theater: his nim- bus of white hair, his face at once ascetic and sensual, his superb hands which conducted without baton. In the 1930's, Stokowski with Tos- canini and Koussevitsky was one of the three conductors of towering repu- tation based in the United States. Of these—indeed of all the worthy con- ductors in the world — Stokowski was the first to temper his awesome repu- tation by, of all things, starring in the movies. Here was the genius who had shaped the Philadelphia Orchestra into the most sublime symphony of all time. Yet he willingly consented to co-star in a Universal film "One Hun- dred Men and a Girl" with the cinema darling of the day Deanna Durbin. That startling act of noblesse oblige he even succeeded in topping—by col- laborating on one of the glorious works of pop art of this century, the animated triumph "Fantasia," with the cartoon tycoon Walt Disney. Stokowski walked with kings and was himself majestic, yet had the com- mon touch. The public loved him for it, and by that is meant the greater public, not just the devotees of Sym- phony Hall. Stokowski repaid the admiration of this new segment of his audience with a priceless gift. He taught them to like Bach. His landmark Bach-Stokowski transcription of the S. 565 Toccata and Fugue in D minor was first recorded in 1927. The young critic R. D. Darrell conjectured in his review in Janu- ary '28: "Does the popular mind still attach the adjectives 'dry' and 'cold' to Bach? A single playing of this rec- ord will pulverize the popular mind." His prediction proved right on the mark. Recalling the event recently in High Fidelity, Darrell reminisced of the landslide popularity that fol- lowed that release: "Few musical by- lines were a stronger guarantee of record-sales success than that of Bach- Stokowski . . . Whole generations of music lovers who grew up in the Depression and World War II eras will never be able to forget how elec- trifyingly they were first introduced to Bach — often indeed to symphonic music itself—by the Stokowski tran- scription and recorded-performance series." The D minor Toccata and Fugue was followed by other, equally com- pelling Bach-Stokowski transcrip- tions: the BWV. 582 Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, the BWV. 578 "Little" Fugue in G minor, the S. 1004 D minor Chaconne, and many others. They continued to appear in the shellac era on 78 rpm recordings, purchased singly, and again in the long-playing era in 33 rpm album collections. As the still later high fidelity and stereo eras advanced, Capitol Records was quick to invite Stokowski to join its roster of distinguished artists. The result was a stunning series of albums combining Stokowski's genius as con- ductor with his unparalleled know- how among conductors of recording techniques. Several of these collec- tions featured one or more Bach- Stokowski transcriptions, and Capitol SP-8489, "Orchestral Program," was a feast of all Bach-Stokowski pieces. These High Fidelity's R. D. Darrell and other critics found "more seduc- tive and electrifying than ever." Some of the best of these brilliant stereophonic performances from Sto- kowski's youthful seventies Seraphim now makes newly available here. They are issued not, solely, as repre- sentatives of an outstanding series of recordings of the century, but as an enduring tribute to the incomparable Leopold Stokowski, one of the too few legendary titans of our age.



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