Album

The Original Masters series is partly a way for Decca to clean house, making available several titles formerly circulated in single-disc formats through compiling them into a box and shrinking the price way, way down. Leopold Stokowski: Decca Recordings 1964-1975 is largely made up of recordings made expressly for Decca's high-end "Phase 4" stereo process, which was state of the art in the 1960s and still packs considerable punch in the digital era. The six discs in this inexpensive set collects many of the composers who are found in Stokowski's core repertoire, for example Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Mussorgsky, along with Stokowski's own "Symphonic Synthesis" of themes from the last-named composer's Boris Godunov. The pieces are all complete; the sound quality is fantastic and not dated in the least.

One work here that was NOT part of Stokowski's standard repertoire is a highly interesting artifact in itself. In 1911, in an innovative idea typical of the conductor, Stokowski polled the 932 subscribers to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as to what was their favorite of the works he had performed. To his surprise, they overwhelmingly selected a work he had never conducted, the Schubert "Unfinished" Symphony. He soon programmed the piece for Cincinnati, but seldom returned to it, and this recording for Decca is the only one Stokowski made. It is a brilliant performance; expansive, beauteous, serious, and very musical—it makes one wonder why he did not program the Schubert more often.

Stokowski remains controversial in some quarters, and within some works, one may find evidence of certain orchestral details being "touched up." Purists will not dig that aspect of Leopold Stokowski: Decca Recordings 1964-1975, but even some of them would agree that there was always at least an idea behind Stokowski's intervention into the score. Outside of that, though, the virtues of this collection well outweigh any perceived deficiencies—for the cost of two and a half full-price discs one may own a nice cross section of key Romantic orchestral literature led by an expert conductor. This would be a wonderful gift for a young listener in need of an introduction to classical music. The main drawback is the package, which tries to cram six discs into a "clamshell" box not much larger than what would normally hold two—two pieces of foam and fragile panels that hinge out to hold discs complete the effect of fussy and inconvenient packaging. Put the discs in a CD changer, and find a place for the box where it can collect dust and you will be fine.

© Uncle Dave Lewis, All Music Guide

CD 1 of 6
Ludwig van Beethoven Composer Symphony No.5 in C-, Op.67 Work Recorded 1969 32:53 Leopold Stokowski Conductor, London Philharmonic Orchestra Orchestra
1	1.Allegro con brio	6:35			$0.99
2	2.Andante con moto	11:14			$1.99
3	3.Scherzo: Allegro	6:03			$0.99
4	4.Allegro	9:01			$1.49
Ludwig van Beethoven Composer Symphony No.7 in A, Op.92 Work Recorded 1975 36:29 Leopold Stokowski Conductor, New Philharmonia Orchestra Orchestra
5	1.Poco sostenuto. Vivace	12:45			$1.99
6	2.Allegretto	10:21			$1.99
7	3.Scherzo: Presto	5:28			$0.99
8	4.Finale: Allegro con brio	7:55			$1.49
CD 2 of 6
Ludwig van Beethoven Composer Egmont (incidental music, after Goethe's play), Op.84 Work Recorded 1973 Leopold Stokowski Conductor, New Philharmonia Orchestra Orchestra
1	1.Overture: Sostenuto, ma non troppo. Allegro	8:51			$1.49
Ludwig van Beethoven Composer Symphony No.9 in D-, Op.125 ('Choral') Work Recorded 1967 1:07:19 Heather Harper Soprano, Alexander Young Tenor, Leopold Stokowski Conductor, Donald McIntyre Bass-baritone, New Philharmonia Orchestra Orchestra, Helen Watts Contralto, London Symphony Chorus Chorus/Choir
2	1.Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso	15:03			$2.49
3	2.Scherzo: Molto vivace. Presto	11:02			$1.99
4	3.Adagio molto e cantabile	15:05			$2.49
5	4.Presto. Allegro assai ('Ode to Joy'; complete)	26:09			$3.99
CD 3 of 6
Franz Peter Schubert Composer Symphony No.8 in B-, D.759 ('Unfinished') Work Recorded 1969 24:52 Leopold Stokowski Conductor, London Philharmonic Orchestra Orchestra
1	1.Allegro moderato	11:36			$1.99
2	2.Andante con moto	13:16			$2.49
Johannes Brahms Composer Symphony No.1 in C-, Op.68 Work Recorded 1972 45:12 Leopold Stokowski Conductor, London Symphony Orchestra Orchestra
3	1.Un poco sostenuto. Allegro	14:17			$2.49
4	2.Andante sostenuto	9:31			$1.49
5	3.Un poco allegretto e grazioso	4:30			$0.99
6	4.Adagio. Piu andante. Allegro non troppo, ma con brio	16:54			$2.99
CD 4 of 6
Richard Wagner Composer Die Walküre (The Valkyrie; opera), WWV 86b...Die Walküre, WWV86b (opera, arr. orchestra) Work Recorded 1966 Leopold Stokowski Conductor, London Symphony Orchestra Orchestra
1	Act 3: Ride of the Valkyries	5:09			$0.99
Richard Wagner Composer Götterdämmerung (opera), WWV 86d...Prologue Work Recorded 1966 Leopold Stokowski Conductor, London Symphony Orchestra Orchestra
2	6.Orchesterzwischenspiel: Tagesanbruch; 12.Orchesterzwischenspiel: Siegfrieds Rheinfahrt	11:57			$1.99
Richard Wagner Composer Götterdämmerung (opera), WWV 86d...Act 3 Work Recorded 1966 Leopold Stokowski Conductor, London Symphony Orchestra Orchestra
3	14.Sc.2: Brünnhilde, heilige Braut!; 15.Sc.2: Orchesterzwischenspiel: Siegfrieds Trauermarsch	11:55			$1.99
Richard Wagner Composer Das Rheingold (opera), WWV 86a...Act 4 Work Recorded 1966 Leopold Stokowski Conductor, London Symphony Orchestra Orchestra
4	21.Einzug der Götter in Walhall (Entry of the Gods into Valhalla)	7:39			$1.49
Richard Wagner Composer Siegfried (opera), WWV 86c...Act 2 Work Recorded 1966 Leopold Stokowski Conductor, London Symphony Orchestra Orchestra
5	12.Sc.2: Daß der mein Vater nicht ist (with 'Waldweben' or 'Forest Murmurs')	9:14			$1.49
Richard Wagner Composer Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (opera)...Act 1 Work Recorded 1972 Leopold Stokowski Conductor, London Symphony Orchestra Orchestra
6	1.Overture	10:31			$1.99
CD 5 of 6
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov Composer Sheherazade (symphonic suite), Op.35 Work Recorded 1964 45:43 Leopold Stokowski Conductor, Erich Gruenberg Violin, London Symphony Orchestra Orchestra
1	1.The Sea and Sinbad's ship (Largo e maestoso. Allegro non troppo)	10:03			$1.99
2	2.The Story of Kalender Prince (Lento. Andantino)	11:42			$1.99
3	3.The Young Prince and the Young Princess (Andantino quasi allegretto)	11:53			$1.99
4	4.Festival at Baghdad - The Sea (Allegro molto)	12:05			$1.99
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov Composer Capriccio espagñol (Kaprichchio na ispankskiye temï), Op.34 Work Recorded 1973 15:43 Leopold Stokowski Conductor, New Philharmonia Orchestra Orchestra
5	1.Alborada in A	1:20			$0.49
6	2.Variazioni in F	4:51			$0.99
7	3.Alborada in Bb	1:24			$0.49
8	4.Scena e canto gitano in D-	5:13			$0.99
9	5.Fandango asturiano in A	2:55			$0.99
CD 6 of 6
Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky Composer 1812 Festival Overture, in Eb, Op.49 Work Recorded 1969 Band of the Grenadier Guards Band, Royal Philharmonic Chorus Chorus/Choir, Leopold Stokowski Conductor, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Orchestra, Welsh National Opera Chorus Chorus/Choir
1	1812 Festival Overture, in Eb, Op.49	17:10			$2.99
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky Composer Night on Bald Mountain (Ivanova noch' na Lisoy gore, symphonic poem) Work Recorded 1967 Leopold Stokowski Conductor, London Symphony Orchestra Orchestra
2	Night on Bald Mountain (Ivanova noch' na Lisoy gore, symphonic poem; ed. by Stokowski)	9:21			$1.49
Alexander Borodin Composer Prince Igor (opera; completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov)...Act 2 Work Recorded 1969 Royal Philharmonic Chorus Chorus/Choir, Leopold Stokowski Conductor, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Orchestra, Welsh National Opera Chorus Chorus/Choir
3	17a.Polovtsian Dance: Flowing Dance of Young Maidens; 17b.Dance of the Savage Men; 17c.Polovtsian Dance: Dance of the Slaves; 17d.Polovtsian Dance: Dance of the Young Men	11:13			$1.99
Leopold Stokowski Composer Symphonic Synthesis on "Boris Godunov", for orchestra (after Mussorgsky) Work Recorded 1968 Leopold Stokowski Conductor, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande Orchestra
4	Symphonic Synthesis on "Boris Godunov", for orchestra (after Mussorgsky)	22:50			$3.99
Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky Composer Slavonic March (Marche Slave), Op.31 Work Recorded 1967 Leopold Stokowski Conductor, London Symphony Orchestra Orchestra
5	Slavonic March (Marche Slave), Op.31	9:55			$1.49