A visitor to Leopold Stokowski’s home recalled the maestro mixing and matching a wide array of exotically flavored liqueurs. Indeed, Stokowski’s bartending proclivities mirrored his fondness for post-production manipulation of orchestral sonorities and dynamics. Take, for instance, his 1967 Decca Phase 4 recording of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Solo instruments are highlighted to extremes, while the strings envelop the listener in an audiophile bear hug. Placed high up in the mix, the finale’s solo singers all but drown out the orchestra. That never happens in real life. For Stoki unplugged, however, turn instead to a live Beethoven Ninth recorded a fortnight earlier with the same forces. Its engineering is of good, archival quality, although the recording’s slightly muffled high end and prominent tape hiss suggest a tape several generations removed from the source. The microphone placement, intentionally or not, aligns the wind and string choirs in equal perspective. You also hear the vocalists in realistic proportion to their instrumental surroundings. More to the point, Stoki’s faster tempos inspire more incisive rhythmic pointing and tighter control all around even if he can’t resist tinkering with the cymbal writing in the finale. Similarly, the suite from Wagner’s Die Meistersinger Act 3 benefits from cleaner, more shapely playing by the London Symphony than what the Royal Philharmonic bestowed on the venerable 91-year-old maestro in a 1973 RCA studio recording. As with many of this label’s other Stokowski releases, Music and Arts includes an excellent, extensive profile of the conductor by the late Curtis Davis. In sum, Stokowski fans with a specialist bent will be glad that these live 1967 performances are now available at mid-price. [4/20/2000]
