Fine Leopold Consumption

This fabulous five disc set is replete with some of those old Stokowski warhorses all recorded in absolutely mind boggling Phase 4 sound, overblown perhaps but astounding for its time. Decca's remastering is absolutely magnificent and the discs are jam packed with almost six hours of music. This is another fine memorial to a great conductor who remained astonishingly vital until the very end of his life.

Leopold Mozart’s reputation has suffered more than that of most of his professional contemporaries, due in no small measure to the fame of his peerless son and to much spiteful and ill-informed criticism over the past 200 years. Yet he was an acute and sardonic observer of men and morals, a superlative critic and teacher and, as this recording shows, a fine composer whose works circulated well beyond the confines of Salzburg and made the name Mozart famous before it became immortal.

As the notes to this welcome release make clear Stokowski had never conducted The Four Seasons before the Phase Four series of LPs of which this is so engaging an example. He, soloist Hugh Bean and the New Philharmonia went to the BBC’s Maida Vale studios and taped it for later broadcast (in the end it wasn’t until 1968 that it hit the airwaves), recording it the following day. The late Hugh Bean has recalled that it was in the can in one session – Stokowski remaining the professional to his batonless fingertips.

Mozart’s return to Vienna in 1781 initiated a remarkable period of inventiveness and productivity. In late 1784 he wrote the Piano Concerto No. 19 in F major, a work Mozart performed in Frankfurt on the occasion of Leopold II’s election as Holy Roman Emperor and which is notable for its rhythmic vivacity and sense of colour. In 1786 he wrote the Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major – a work that stretched the concerto genre considerably with its operatic qualities and dramatic dialogue. Ignaz Lachner’s ingenious transcriptions show a complete grasp of Mozart’s idiom, incorporating much instrumental detail and reinventing the music’s underlying dramatic scheme within a chamber context.

George Enescus greatest sin was his ability to master many things and excel at all of them, whether as composer, violinist, pianist, conductor, teacher, or even organist and cellist! This ability coupled with his legendary musical memory were astonishing. His musical compositions, however, were overshadowed by his career as a virtuoso something he struggled with throughout his life. Rudolf Leopold and Raluca Stirbat present Enescus complete known works for cello and piano, which reflect the turbulent musical and general circumstances of the composers astonishing life and his time.

How do you describe Leopold Stokowski in one word? Showman, impresario, visionary, firebrand, agent provocateur, magician? Take your pick as he all that and more. It’s 40 years since the passing of one of the most colorful characters in Decca’s roster and one of the most indefatigable innovators in music performance history. His complete recordings for Decca/Phase 4 are presented together for the first time, with a bonus audio documentary featuring an interview with the maestro himself, in a handsome Limited Edition 23-CD boxed set.

How do you describe Leopold Stokowski in one word? Showman, impresario, visionary, firebrand, agent provocateur, magician? Take your pick as he all that and more. It’s 40 years since the passing of one of the most colorful characters in Decca’s roster and one of the most indefatigable innovators in music performance history. His complete recordings for Decca/Phase 4 are presented together for the first time, with a bonus audio documentary featuring an interview with the maestro himself, in a handsome Limited Edition 23-CD boxed set.

The 1970 film version of Richard Wagner’s opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is based on a staging by the director Leopold Lindtberg, for which Herbert Kirchhoff designed the set and Rudolf Heinrich the costumes. Leopold Ludwig conducts the Chorus of the Hamburg State Opera and the Philharmonic Hamburg State Orchestra. A quick glance at the cast list of this film production of Die Meistersinger reveals the surprising fact that the vocal protagonists – all stars of international reputation – were almost all associated with the Hamburg State Opera ensemble. This production fascinates by its appealing classical staging, the brilliance of the whole cast and the great camera shots, which are only could be realised in a studio production like this and with the result, that the audience finds itself placed amidst the scene.

As a special, connecting and autobiographical element for this recording, the beautiful city of Salzburg is a legendary and inspiring place that is deeply influenced by music history and which everyone involved in the production - from the composer, the conductor, the soloist to the orchestra musicians and the orchestra attendant - became hometown for at least an important period of life; in the actual as well as in the artistic sense.