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<< -- 2 -- Patric Standford VALUED ARCHIVES
There follows a fiery performance
of Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet with Stokowski's quiet ending similar to
that suggested by Balakirev (Rimsky-Korsakov's wife had scratched out 'the
bombastic series of final chords over a barrage of timpani' in her score).
Stokowski gained the approval of Mrs R-K for his own quiet close
[listen -- track 5, 18:00-19:01].
Mozart was indeed a rarity under Stokowski's direction,
and the 1949 performance of the 'Haffner' Symphony is a commercial first!
It is an eccentric performance with more vigour than we are accustomed to --
he takes a good seven seconds off most 'usual' performances of the first
pages
[listen -- track 6, 0:01-1:10].
The disc also contains a US Army V-Disc
performance of Tom Jefferson Scott's hymn tune fantasy 'From the Sacred
Harp', with a brief spoken introduction by the composer who died at the age
of 50 in 1961, and a quite rough but entertaining performance of
Weinberger's Polka and Fugue from Schwanda the Bagpiper, which is given a
little of Stokowski's personal strengthening to the orchestration at the
end!
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