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Tag: Leopold Stokowski

Stokowski’s Wagner Philadelphia Orchestra

With the exception, perhaps, of his own transcriptions of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Leopold Stokowski recorded more Wagner with the Philadelphia Orchestra than any other single composer.

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll revisit some of Stoky’s early recordings, originally issued on 78s, including the controversial “Liebesnacht,” the original version of his symphonic synthesis after “Tristan und Isolde” – an arrangement that infuriated listeners, with its inconclusive ending – and the “Liebestod,” which he undertook by popular demand, in order to provide a more satisfactory conclusion.

We’ll also hear baritone Lawrence Tibbett, in a role he never sang on stage, in a superb recording of “Wotan’s Farewell and Magic Fire Music.”

That’s “Magic Fire” – Leopold Stokowski’s early Wagner recordings with the Philadelphia Orchestra” – this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

May 20, 2018
Leopold Stokowski on WWFM Today

In just one half hour, get ready for LEOPOLD!

It’s all-Stokowski between 2 & 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

April 18, 2017
Good Friday Music on The Classical Network

Good Friday will be full of great music on The Classical Network.

At 12:00 EDT, we’ll hear a performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “St. John Passion,” live from Trinity Wall Street in New York City. The Choir of Trinity Wall Street will be joined by New York Baroque Incorporated, Wen Yang artistic director. David Osenberg will be your host for this special three-hour broadcast.

I’ll be along at 4:00 to share a glorious recording of Leopold Stokowski conducting the “Good Friday Spell” from Wagner’s “Parsifal.” We’ll also hear symphonies for Passion Week by Haydn and Paul Creston. Adolphus Hailstork’s “Sonata da Chiesa,” inspired by his fascination with cathedrals, will span a variety of moods, from mystery to exultation.

At 6:00, “Picture Perfect” will focus on “Lives of the Saints,” with selections from “The Song of Bernadette” (by Alfred Newman), “Saint Joan” (Mischa Spoliansky), “A Man for All Seasons” (Georges Delerue), and “Quo Vadis?” (Miklos Rozsa).

We’ll get a start on the Easter weekend with intimations of hope and renewal on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

April 14, 2017
Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 4 Debut

It was on this date 90 years ago that the Sergei Rachmaninoff gave the debut of his Piano Concerto No. 4, from the keyboard, with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. It had been 18 years since his previous concerto (which he had unveiled in New York). In the meantime, he had weathered the Russian Revolution and the personal, perpetual obligation of earning a living as a concert pianist.

The original version of the Fourth Concerto was much longer than the one heard at the 1927 premiere. Even so, the work failed to engage either critics or audience. The composer, ever sensitive to criticism (the failure of his Symphony No. 1 plunged him into a depression so profound that it could only be alleviated through hypnotherapy, from which he emerged to write his Piano Concerto No. 2, ecstatically received), prepared a final, authoritative version of the Concerto No. 4 for performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra, this time under Eugene Ormandy, in 1941. The work has never caught the imagination of concert-goers to anywhere near the same extent as the Concertos Nos. 2 & 3.

The original version was released by the Rachmaninoff Estate only in the year 2000. It has since been recorded in this form several times. It’s a very interesting piece. One wonders if the work would have fared better had Rachmaninoff simply stuck to his guns?

The original version of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 4:

PLEASE NOTE: Eric Lu will perform Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, with the Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Chiu-Tze Lin, at Rutgers University’s Nicholas Music Center in New Brunswick, tonight at 7:30 p.m.

PHOTO: Rachmaninoff and Ormandy in 1938

March 18, 2017
Jerome Lowenthal Celebrates 85 Years

Today is the 85th birthday of Philadelphia-born pianist Jerome Lowenthal. Now chair of the piano department at the Juilliard School, here he is in 1968 with Leopold Stokowski, rehearsing Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.”

And in a more recent interview:

https://www.livingtheclassicallife.com/26-jerome-lowenthal/2015/10/16/episode-26-jerome-lowenthal#comments-56207791e4b0b077de882b14=

February 11, 2017

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