Leopold Stokowski's Symphony Orchestra - Stokowski Conducts a Russian Spectacular (2007/2019)

Leopold Stokowski recorded the bulk of these items for RCA Victor between 14 February and 1 October 1953 using an orchestra of hand-picked players – many drawn from the New York Philharmonic. The Polovtsian Dances are slightly earlier, dating from sessions held in February 1950. Russian music suited Stokowski’s temperament perfectly, and he revelled in its brilliant colours and savage untamed exuberance. As RCA held its first (experimental) “Living Stereo” sessions in February 1954, these Stokowski performances only narrowly missed being recorded stereophonically.

All the same, mono or not, there are attempts to suggest distance and space, as in the Russian Easter Festival overture, with far-off trombones answering close-up strings in what sounds like a huge Cathedral-like acoustic. But the real magic comes in the central section; for that ‘authentic’ Russian touch, Stokowski engaged bass singer Nicola Moscona to intone ancient Slavic texts in place of Rimsky’s solo trombone. It works fabulously well – though Charles Gerhardt went one better in his Readers Digest recording and used a chorus at this point! Stokowski’s performance is very exciting, with fast driving tempos and some hair-raising virtuoso orchestral playing.

The recording copes well, given its age, though (as with most of the other items on this CD) the balance favours strings rather than brass. This is very apparent in A Night on a Bare Mountain – given in Stokowski’s own orchestration. Musically, it’s pretty much the same version he recorded for Decca Phase Four in the late 1960s with the London Symphony Orchestra, but the London performance is more exaggerated and sounds scarier because the brass is much more forwardly balanced. Indeed, comparing the two performances, it sounds as though Stokowski had tinkered with the orchestration here and there, making the LSO version even starker and aggressive.

Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977)The excerpts from “Khovanshchina” are atmospherically played – especially the Act Four ‘Entr’acte’ in Stokowski’s dramatic scoring. The low snarling brass and heavy tam-tam strokes heighten the mood of impending doom and tragedy, making the original version seem somewhat pale and lightweight. In Stokowski’s hands the music is transformed to a symphonic poem of inexorable power and darkness.
Atmospheric in a totally different way is Borodin’s haunting In the Steppes of Central Asia. The slightly recessed recording creates an aural impression of great space – as though one were viewing the tiny caravan winding its way through the vast steppe through the romantic mists of time. It’s a loving lingering performance full of rapt shimmering beauty. Remarkably, Stokowski takes almost 9 minutes over the piece – around 2 minutes longer than usual – and in doing so creates a piece of exquisite loveliness.

The selection of Dances from “Prince Igor” is different to the versions usually heard – and also differs from the recording Stokowski later made for Decca – having the first couple of numbers from Act Two linked to the familiar Polovtsian Dances. This recording was made in 1950; the sound is pretty good and certainly conveys the vivid excitement of the playing. Incidentally, the transfers for this CD (lasting 75’08” rather than the stated 74’28”) have all been taken from vinyl LP pressings and the re-mastering has eliminated surface noise and distortion. True, by modern standards, the sound lacks a little at both extremes of the frequency range. But, for the most part, the recordings are clear, conveying the excitement produced by Stokowski and his players.