Johann Sebastian Bach - Stokowski's Transcriptions (Leopold Stokowski, Decca)

Information

Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach; William Byrd; Jeremiah Clarke; Franz Schubert; Frédéric Chopin; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; Henri Duparc; Sergei Rachmaninov

1. Bach - Toccata & Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 (arr. Stokowski)
2. Bach - Prelude in E-flat minor, BWV 853 (arr. Stokowski)
3. Bach - Mein Jesu! was für Seelenweh, BWV 487 (arr. Stokowski)
4. Bach - Wir glauben all' an einen Gott, BWV 437 (arr. Stokowski)
5. Bach - Christ lag in Todes Banden, "Easter" cantata, BWV 4 (arr. Stokowski)
6. Bach - Passacaglia & Fugue in C minor, BWV 582 (arr. Stokowski)
7. Byrd - Pavan and Two Galliards, The Earl of Salisbury (arr. Stokowski)
8. Clarke - Trumpet voluntary (arr. Stokowski)
9. Schubert - 6 Moment musicaux, D. 780: No. 3 in F minor (arr. Stokowski)
10. Chopin - Mazurka in A minor, Op. 17 No. 4 (arr. Stokowski)
11. Tchaikovsky - Chant sans paroles, Op. 40 No. 6 (arr. Stokowski)
12. Duparc - Extase (arr. Stokowski)
13. Rachmaninov - Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 3 No. 2 (arr. Stokowski)

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (1-6, 13)
London Symphony Orchestra (7-12)
Leopold Stokowski, conductor

Date: 1972
Label: Decca
out of print, still available as CD38 of this collection
http://www.deccaclassics.com/us/cat/4786769
or CD1 of this
http://www.deccaclassics.com/us/cat/4751452

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Review

Lushly coloured and often retouched music-making was the order of the day with Stokowski. This generously packed box of five discs (each in its own card sleeve) offers his trademark approach, unshakeably confident and belligerently gripping. If you have been reared on sane, refined, neatly sustained readings of the great classics by Haitink, Böhm, Davis, Jochum or Boult the day will come when you will want an adventure; that is what each of these recordings is. Stokowski may phrase and balance things is a surprising way. He might sometimes offend you with his adjustments and re-colourings but he will not bore you. You get the impression that every single iota of each score has been calculated, freshly envisioned and then let loose in spontaneity and often awe.

The first disc starts with his ‘signature’ the Toccata and Fugue in D minor which glows and smiles, glares and gibbers, rocks and roars. Perhaps hear this first to make sure that you want the set as a whole. If you like the approach you will like the rest.

This is a section of the Stokowski legacy that was much derided because of its zoomed-in Phase Four recording technology. This entailed intimate microphone placement and a twenty channel mixer desk. The result was highly detailed, not natural but having plenty of physical, sensual and emotional impact. Reviewers at the time were either dismissive or uncomfortable with the technology although one wonders whether much would have been said if Decca had not branded the line so prominently and made Phase Four a unique selling point. It must have had some perceived success if only because EMI Classics responded with its own short-lived Studio Four line.

Decca's engineers certainly piled the tension on to those analogue tapes and I hear some congestion in the fire-hose pressure of the sobbing massed violin writing in the Corale from Jesus Christus, Gottes Sohn (*tr.5 CD1). The conductor’s orchestration of the BWV582 Passacaglia and Fugue is at first so dark that you could swear Balakirev's Thamar might have had a hand in the proceedings. Stokowski seems, in this work, to be building a bridge across the golden firmament such is its majestic awe and regal pacing.

The Byrd Pavan is likewise gorged with romantic feeling although Howard Snell's trumpet is not as lithe and smoothly produced as it might have been on a better day. Stokowski is much more at ease in the tremblingly gracious Schubert Moment Musical No. 3, given a decidedly Straussian lilt. This might even have passed muster as to a Beecham lollipop. The Chopin Mazurka in A Op.17 No. 4 is coloured as if a companion on the one hand to Ravel's Pavane and on the other to Debussy's Faune. Tchaikovsky's Chants sans parole Op. 49 No. 6 sounds authentically Tchaikovskian perhaps because Stokowski's sympathies are much closer to Tchaikovsky’s in the first place. It is however the least memorable of these small pieces. The Duparc Extase has David Gray's solo horn in the place of the singer's line. It is al done with yearning sweetness seemingly irradiated with a golden glow. After so much serenity and light the orchestration of Rachmaninov's Prelude in C sharp minor Op. 3 No. 2 is a welcome contrast for its fantastic atmosphere painting - what would he have made of the Rachmaninov Etudes-Tableaux (of course Respighi another super-colourist beat Stokowski to it with five of those) or to the Medtner Skazki. Stokowski here shows lessons learnt from the Rachmaninov works he championed such as the Third Symphony as well as ladling on the starry treatment. Hearing his way with La Cathédrale Engloutie one wishes he might have taken some recorded interest in Griffes’ Pleasure Dome - the read-across is clear although the Hollywood light is also evident. The deep bell tones are touched in iron and golden glory by the brass and by the tense trembling of the massed violins.

-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2014/Nov14/Phase4_pt8.htm
http://www.amazon.com/J-S-Bach-Toccata-Fugue/dp/B00000428V

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Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March [O.S. 21 March] 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. Bach enriched established German styles through his mastery of counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and his adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from Italy and France. He is known for instrumental compositions such as the Brandenburg Concertos and the Goldberg Variations, and vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach

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Leopold Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British conductor of Polish and Irish descent. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th Century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra and for appearing in the film Fantasia. He was especially noted for his free-hand conducting style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from the orchestras he directed. Stokowski made his official conducting debut in 1909 and continued making recordings until June 1977, a few months before his death at the age of 95.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Stokowski

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