THE STOKOWSKI EDITION, XV
CD-4857(1)
It appears that Leopold Stokowski first realized the potential
offered by a youth ensemble when he observed a number of regional auditions
for the Curtis Institute held during the Philadelphia Orchestra's 1936 U.S.
tour. Not long afterward, he met Aubrey Williams, head of the National Youth
Administration, and proposed that they "form an orchestra of young people."
Eventually, with some support from the government, and a lot more from Columbia
Records (anxious to recruit Stokowski into its stable), the project proceeded.
A series of coast-to-coast auditions resulted in the first All American
Youth Orchestra which, after a few stateside tune-up concerts, embarked
on a three-nation South American tour from July to September 1940. A second
AAYO was formed in 1941 for a U.S. tour lasting from May to July. The evidence
is that this time Stokowski paid most of the bills. A third season, to cover
portions of the U.S., Central and South America, and Mexico was announced,
but shelved by the war. In conception, sound, and expressiveness, Stokowski's
1941 AAYO Beethoven Fifth is blood kin to the 1931 Philadelphia version,
but is in superior sound. Both present the work as a portentous, fate-filled
expression, loaded with dramatic vignettes. The Brahms First had a special
place in Stokowski's life. It was on his 1912 inaugural concerts with the
London Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra, and later with the Houston Symphony
in 1955. He made five recordings of the Brahms First between 1927 and 1972,
of which the present reading is, in many ways, the most individual of them
all, featuring the longest save one version of the opening, the longest
and most expansive of the second movement, and the fastest and shortest
of the third. Disc-to-tape transfers by Mark Obert-Thorn.
CD-4857(1) THE STOKOWSKI EDITION, XV,
WITH THE ALL AMERICAN YOUTH ORCHESTRA. BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 5 in c, Op.
67 (rec. 14 Nov. 1940); BRAHMS: Symphony No. 1 in c, Op. 68 (rec. 8 July
1941; previously unpublished except as a private recording issued for members
of the Leopold Stokowski Society of America). Disc-to-tape transfers: Mark
Obert-Thorn.
UPC #0-17685-48572-5
