Thread: Leopold Stokowski

Originally Posted by bigshot

I read a biography of Stoki that said that he often complained about balances, wanting them to sound the way he heard it from the podium. He asked to have volume pots put on his podium so he could adjust it on the fly. One of the engineers played a joke and built a glass booth with a bunch of dummy dials and meters, hooked up to nothing. They wheeled the booth out as a surprise at a recording session. Stoki was delighted and hopped in and did a short rehearsal from inside the booth. As he conducted, he would occasionally adjust something and go back and have the orchestra repeat the passage with the new setting. After a half hour he called a coffee break and thanked everyone and marched off the stage. When he came back, he called out "Let's do a take." and walked right past the booth to his regular podium and never looked at the booth again.

Great story but apocryphal I think. Stokowski was well known for having an expert's knowledge on sound matters, see above. Who won, the great one will be back with another 300 pages "momentarily" as the colonists say.

Thanks! I was inspired by this thread to write a post for my blog about Stokowski. I'll include that playlist...

Leopold Stokowski: Artist of the Past, Artist of the Future
http://animationresources.org/?p=6754

Originally Posted by bigshot

Thanks! I was inspired by this thread to write a post for my blog about Stokowski. I'll include that playlist...

Leopold Stokowski: Artist of the Past, Artist of the Future
http://animationresources.org/?p=6754

Good blog! The Tchaikovsky piece was ,I think,from the film "Carnegie Hall" a dreadful effort but including people like Jan Peerce, Pinza, Reiner and Heifetz.

Originally Posted by Webernite

There's a long, avant-garde radio programme that Glenn Gould made about Stokowski. I've listened to it a couple of times on Youtube. It's funny, but quite good.

Thanks! I was just reading Gould's recollection of this production in the Glenn Gould Reader. A fascinating compilation of interviews, essays, and musical analysis.

Our own John Adams has a great blog on Stokowski:



http://earbox.com/posts/62

Originally Posted by brianwalker

... No subtlety, no nuance; the brass are hellish, the strings, appropriately schizophrenic.

... No subtlety, no nuance; the brassiness of tone is hellish and off-putting, the strings of 'thought', appropriately schizophrenic.

Well, I think it best to shun / ignore anything with all those qualities....