21 December 2024

Tchaikovsky 5 & rehearsals - Stokowski


 


Well, three posts to make up for an inactive December. Best wishes to everyone for a beautiful new year!



According to the BBC Proms Chronology, Stokowski conducted 5 concerts in all on these dates: 

23 and 30 july 1963, 15 and 17 september 1964, 10 september 1966. The largest and most detailed online discography of the maestro confirms the informations provided on the booklet, so I don't know what to add. Although this other concert took place at the RAH, it was not supposed to be part of the Proms... although the date (August 1973) suggests otherwise. I've not found any "definitive" news on the matter. Even the name of the orchestra sounds quite mysterious to me... but in the end, from the Philadelphians to a Conservatory orchestra, from the Houston Symphony to the Czech Philharmonic, after a couple of rehearsals they all became a Stokowski Symphony Orchestra.

What really matters, anyway, is that it is an involved performance of the Fifth, enriched by a large excerpt of rehearsals.


TCHAIKOVSKY

Symphony no. 5 

Performance + 35 min rehearsals


International Festival Orchestra

LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI

Live - August 1973


FLAC & scans




3 comments:

Guido said...

https://www.mediafire.com/file/knug3vxn7rco7p3/TCHA5-STOK.zip/file

lsl said...

Thank you for sharing this. Have a Happy Christmas. Best wishes, Louis

Burtw47 said...

In those days, the Proms were not held on a Sunday, so the International Festival Youth Orchestra (students from 10 different countries, not professional musicians) were able to book the RAH, as it was freely available. The rehearsals were recorded at Morley College, London.
The first half of the 19 August 1973 concert was conducted by Zdenek Kosler (Bruch’s VC with Kyung-Wha Chung).
The solo horn player of the orchestra was Dutchman Jeroen Vermeulen (Tchaikovsky, 2nd mvt).
Stokowski had previously conducted the IFYO in Switzerland. After his own transcription of the Bach Passacaglia and Fugue, he accompanied Maria Isabella De Carli in Mozart’s PC No. 20 in Sankt Moritz (issued on Guild CD GH 2405) on 31 August 1969.