Editing Leopold Stokowski (section)

==Recording==
[[File:Portrait photograph of Leopold Stokowski.jpg|thumb|upright|Portrait of Stokowski in 1926]]
Stokowski made his very first recordings, with the Philadelphia Orchestra, for the [[Victor Talking Machine Company]] in October 1917, beginning with two of [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]]' ''[[Hungarian Dances (Brahms)|Hungarian Dances]]''. Other works recorded in the early sessions were the scherzo from [[Felix Mendelssohn|Mendelssohn]]'s ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn)|A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' [[incidental music]] and "Dance of the Blessed Spirits" from [[Christoph Willibald Gluck|Gluck]]'s ''[[Orfeo ed Euridice]].''<ref>Abram Chasins, p. 93</ref> He found ways to make the best use of the acoustic recording process, until electric recording was introduced by Victor in the spring of 1925. He conducted the first orchestral electrical recording to be made in America ([[Camille Saint-Saëns|Saint-Saëns]]'s ''[[Danse macabre (Saint-Saëns)|Danse Macabre]]'') in April 1925. The following month Stokowski recorded ''[[Marche Slave]]'' by [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]], in which he increased the double basses to best utilise the lower frequencies of early electrical recording. Stokowski was also the first conductor in America to record all four of Brahms' symphonies (between 1927 and 1933).{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}

{{ external media | float = right|width=230px |audio1 = Listen to Stokowski conducting his orchestration of [[Franz Liszt]]'s ''[[Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2]]'' with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1927 [https://archive.org/details/LisztHungarianRhapsodyNo.2_689 '''at archive.org''']}}

Stokowski made the first US recordings of the [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]] 7th and 9th Symphonies, [[Antonín Dvořák]]'s [[Symphony No. 9 (Dvořák)|''New World'' Symphony]], [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky]]'s [[Symphony No. 4 (Tchaikovsky)|4th Symphony]] and ''[[The Nutcracker|Nutcracker Suite]]'', [[César Franck]]'s [[Symphony in D minor (Franck)|Symphony in D minor]], [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov]]'s ''Scheherazade'', [[Sergei Rachmaninoff]]'s [[Piano Concerto No. 2 (Rachmaninoff)|2nd Piano Concerto]] (with the composer as soloist), [[Jean Sibelius]]'s [[Symphony No. 4 (Sibelius)|4th Symphony]] (its first recording), [[Dmitri Shostakovich]]'s [[Symphony No. 5 (Shostakovich)|5th]] and [[Symphony No. 6 (Shostakovich)|6th]] Symphonies, and many shorter works. His early recordings were made at Victor's Trinity Church studio in [[Camden, New Jersey]] until 1926, when Victor began recording the orchestra in the [[Academy of Music (Philadelphia)|Academy of Music]] in [[Philadelphia]]. Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra later participated in long playing, high fidelity, and stereophonic experiments, during the early 1930s, mostly for [[Bell Laboratories]]<ref>Fox, Barry (24–31 December 1981) [https://books.google.com/books?id=Vb5Mz6DmutYC&q=stokowski&pg=PA908 "A hundred years of stereo: fifty of hi-fi"], ''Scientific American'', pp 910–911; retrieved 1 March 2012.</ref> (Victor even released some early [[Long Playing Record]]s around this time, which were not commercially successful for several reasons). Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra continued to make records exclusively for Victor through December 1940. One of his last 1940 sessions was the world premiere recording of Shostakovich's sixth symphony. In addition to [[RCA Red Seal|RCA Victor]], Stokowski recorded prodigiously for several other labels until shortly before his death, including [[Columbia Records|Columbia]], [[Capitol Records|Capitol]], [[EMI Records|EMI]]/[[His Master's Voice (British record label)|His Master's Voice]], [[Everest Records|Everest]], [[United Artists]], and [[Decca Records|Decca]]/London. {{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}

In 1954, Stokowski made his first commercial stereo recordings with the [[NBC Symphony Orchestra]] for RCA Victor. These records were of excerpts from Prokofiev's ballet ''[[Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev)|Romeo and Juliet]]'' and the complete one-act ballet ''Sebastian'' by [[Gian Carlo Menotti]]. From 1947 to 1953, Stokowski recorded for RCA Victor with a specially assembled 'ad hoc' band of players drawn principally from the New York Philharmonic and NBC Symphony Orchestras. The records were credited to 'Leopold Stokowski and His Symphony Orchestra' and the repertoire ranged from [[Joseph Haydn|Haydn]] (his ''[[Symphony No. 53 (Haydn)|Imperial]]'' Symphony) to [[Arnold Schoenberg|Schoenberg]] (''[[Verklärte Nacht|Transfigured Night]]'') by way of [[Robert Schumann|Schumann]], [[Franz Liszt|Liszt]], [[Georges Bizet|Bizet]], [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]], Tchaikovsky, [[Claude Debussy|Debussy]], [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]], [[Sibelius]] and [[Percy Grainger]]. Stokowski's recordings for [[Capitol Records]] in the 1950s were distinguished by the use of three-track stereophonic tape recorders.{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}

Stokowski was very careful in the placement of musicians during recording sessions and worked closely with the recording staff to achieve the best possible results. Some of the sessions took place in the ballroom of the Riverside Plaza Hotel in New York City in January and February 1957; these were produced by Richard C. Jones and engineered by Frank Abbey with Stokowski's own orchestra, which was typically drawn from New York musicians (primarily members of the [[Symphony of the Air]]). The CD reissue by [[EMI]] included selections originally released on two LPs -- ''The Orchestra'' and ''Landmarks of a Distinguished Career''—and featured music of [[Paul Dukas]], [[Samuel Barber]], [[Richard Strauss]], [[Harold Farberman]], [[Vincent Persichetti]], Tchaikovsky, [[Modest Mussorgsky|Mussorgsky]], Debussy, [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]] (as arranged by Stokowski), and Sibelius.<ref>Warner Classics liner notes</ref> Although he officially used the [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]] orchestration of the finale to Mussorgsky's ''Pictures at an Exhibition'' in his 1957 Capitol recording, he did add a few additional percussion instruments to the score. His Capitol recording of [[Gustav Holst|Holst]]'s ''[[The Planets]]'' was made with the [[Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra]]. EMI, which acquired [[Angel Records]] and Capitol in the 1950s, reissued many of Stokowski's Capitol recordings on CD; these recordings are now controlled by [[Warner Classics]], as EMI ceased to exist in 2013. All of the music that Stokowski conducted in ''Fantasia'' was released on a 3-LP set by [[Disneyland Records]], in the 1957 [[soundtrack album]] made from the film. After stereo became possible on phonograph records, the album was released in stereo on [[Buena Vista Records]]. With the advent of [[compact discs]], it appeared on a 2-CD [[Walt Disney Records]] set, in conjunction with the film's 50th anniversary.{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}

In 1958, Stokowski signed a contract with [[Everest Records]], which was noted for its use of 35&nbsp;mm film instead of tape and the resulting highly vivid sound. One of Stokowski's most notable Everest recordings was a coupling of Tchaikovsky's ''[[Francesca da Rimini (Tchaikovsky)|Francesca da Rimini]]'' and ''[[Hamlet (Tchaikovsky)|Hamlet]]'' with the New York Stadium Symphony Orchestra (the summer name for the New York Philharmonic). Stokowski's other remarkable Everest recordings include [[Heitor Villa-Lobos|Villa-Lobos]]' tone poem ''[[Uirapuru (Villa-Lobos)|Uirapuru]]'', Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 and Prokofiev's ballet suite ''[[Cinderella (Prokofiev)|Cinderella]]''. Several of Stokowski's televised concerts have been issued on both VHS and DVD, including Beethoven's 5th Symphony and Schubert's [[Symphony No. 8 (Schubert)|''Unfinished'' Symphony]] with the London Philharmonic on EMI Classics 'Classic Archive' label; the Nielsen 2nd Symphony with the Danish Radio Orchestra on VAI (Video Artists International); and Charles Ives' [[Symphony No. 4 (Ives)|4th Symphony]] with the American Symphony Orchestra on Classical Video Rarities.

In 1973, Stokowski was invited by the International Festival of Youth Orchestras to conduct the 1973 International Festival Orchestra, numbering 140 of the world's finest young musicians, in a performance of Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony at the Royal Albert Hall, London. The Cameo Classics LP label recorded the concert, and also, by special permission of the maestro, the final rehearsals, which would make up a 2-LP set. Edward Greenfield in ''[[The Guardian]]'' reported "Stokowski rallied them as though it was a vintage Philadelphia concert of the 1920s". Robert M. Stumpff ll (Leopold Stokowski Club of America) called the performance "The finest ever performance of this symphony". This unique Dolby recording was restored in 2014 by Klassik Haus and is available from Cameo Classics on CD (Nimbus Records Distribution).{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}