Notes and Editorial Reviews
Leopold Stokowski was music director of the Cincinnati Symphony from 1909 to 1912, some time before he created his series of orchestral transcriptions, 11 of which appear here. The disc opens with perhaps the most famous of all, Bach's D minor Toccata & Fugue (which also served as the musical introduction to Disney's original Fantasia), and ends with The Great Gate of Kiev from Stokowski's aggressively vivid arrangement of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Between these, the selections range from astonishingly idiomatic renderings of Debussy's Clair de lune and The Engulfed Cathedral, to a doom-laden Rachmaninov C-sharp minor Prelude. There are also the refined delicacies of Boccherini's Menuet and
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Albeniz's Fête-Dieu à Séville, while Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata emerges here as an intense and profound miniature symphonic poem. Even with all of this, the star of the collection must be Stokowski's brazenly majestic rendering of Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain. Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops take to these gems with sheer relish, resulting in highly persuasive and enjoyable performances. Telarc's rich, wide-ranging sound makes it easy to take off your purist's hat for and hour or so, and just kick back and have some fun!--Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday.com Read less
Works on This Recording
1.
Fugue in G minor, BWV 578 "Little G minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach
Conductor:
Erich Kunzel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Cincinnati Pops
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1706; Arnstadt, Germany
Venue: Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio
Length: 3 Minutes 48 Secs.
Notes: Orchestrated: Leopold Stokowski
2.
Quintet for 2 Violins, Viola and 2 Cellos in E major, Op. 11 no 5/G 275: 3rd movement, Minuet in A by Luigi Boccherini
Conductor:
Erich Kunzel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Cincinnati Pops
Period: Classical
Written: 1771; Spain
Venue: Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio
Length: 3 Minutes 12 Secs.
Notes: Arranged: Leopold Stokowski
This minuet, listed in Boccherini's autograph catalog as part of Opus 11,
was also published, and is known popularly, as part of Opus 13.
3.
Suite bergamasque: 3rd movement, Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy
Conductor:
Erich Kunzel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Cincinnati Pops
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1890/1905; France
Venue: Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio
Length: 5 Minutes 28 Secs.
Notes: Orchestrated: Leopold Stokowski
4.
Préludes, Book 1: no 10, La cathédrale engloutie by Claude Debussy
Conductor:
Erich Kunzel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Cincinnati Pops
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1910; France
Venue: Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio
Length: 6 Minutes 42 Secs.
Notes: Orchestrated: Leopold Stokowski
5.
Sonata for Piano no 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 27 no 2 "Moonlight": 1st movement, Adagio sostenuto by Ludwig van Beethoven
Conductor:
Erich Kunzel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Cincinnati Pops
Period: Classical
Written: 1801; Vienna, Austria
Venue: Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio
Length: 5 Minutes 49 Secs.
Notes: Orchestrated: Leopold Stokowski
6.
Suite Iberia, Book 1: no 3, El Corpus en Sevilla by Isaac Albeniz
Conductor:
Erich Kunzel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Cincinnati Pops
Period: Romantic
Written: 1906; France
Venue: Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio
Length: 8 Minutes 52 Secs.
Notes: Orchestrated: Leopold Stokowski
7.
Morceaux de fantaisies (5), Op. 3: no 2, Prélude in C sharp minor by Sergei Rachmaninov
Conductor:
Erich Kunzel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Cincinnati Pops
Period: Romantic
Written: 1892; Russia
Venue: Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio
Length: 4 Minutes 36 Secs.
Notes: Orchestrated: Leopold Stokowski
8.
Night on the Bare Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky
Conductor:
Erich Kunzel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Cincinnati Pops
Period: Romantic
Written: 1866; Russia
Venue: Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio
Length: 8 Minutes 58 Secs.
Notes: Arranged: Leopold Stokowski
9.
Pictures at an exhibition: no 16, The Great Gate of Kiev by Modest Mussorgsky
Conductor:
Erich Kunzel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Cincinnati Pops
Period: Romantic
Written: 1874; Russia
Venue: Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio
Length: 5 Minutes 55 Secs.
Notes: Orchestrated: Leopold Stokowski
10.
Hungarian Dances (21) for Orchestra, WoO 1: no 6 in D major by Johannes Brahms
Conductor:
Erich Kunzel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Cincinnati Pops
Period: Romantic
Written: 1868; Austria
Venue: Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio
Length: 3 Minutes 13 Secs.
Notes: Orchestrated: Leopold Stokowski
11.
Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Conductor:
Erich Kunzel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Cincinnati Pops
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1708; Germany
Venue: Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio
Length: 9 Minutes 7 Secs.
Notes: Orchestrated: Leopold Stokowski
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