Editing Leopold Stokowski (section)

===Philadelphia Orchestra===
[[File:Leopold Stokowski Historical Marker at 240 S Broad St Philadelphia PA (DSC 4778).jpg|thumb|Leopold Stokowski [[historical marker]] at 240 S. Broad St., Philadelphia]]

Two months later, Stokowski was appointed the director of the [[Philadelphia Orchestra]], and he made his conducting debut in [[Philadelphia]] on 11 October 1912. This position would bring him some of his greatest accomplishments and recognition. It has been suggested that Stokowski resigned abruptly at Cincinnati with the hidden knowledge that the conducting position in Philadelphia was his when he wanted it, or as [[Oscar Levant]] suggested in his book ''A Smattering of Ignorance'', "he had the contract in his back pocket." Before Stokowski moved into his conducting position in Philadelphia, however, he returned to England to conduct two concerts at the [[Queen's Hall]] in London. On 22&nbsp;May 1912, Stokowski conducted the [[London Symphony Orchestra]] in a concert that he was to repeat in its entirety 60 years later at the age of 90, and on 14 June 1912, he conducted an all-[[Richard Wagner|Wagner]] concert that featured the noted soprano [[Lillian Nordica]]. While he was director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, he was largely responsible for convincing [[Mary Louise Curtis Bok]] to set up the [[Curtis Institute of Music]] (13 October 1924) in Philadelphia. He helped with recruiting faculty and hired many of their graduates.{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}

{{listen|type=music|pos=left|header='''''Toccata and Fugue in D minor'''''|filename=PDP-CH - Philadelphia Orchestra - Leopold Stokowski - Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 - Part 1 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Electrola-ej231-5-0761.flac|title=Part 1 (4:29)|description=|filename2=PDP-CH - Philadelphia Orchestra - Leopold Stokowski - Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 - Part 2 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Electrola-ej231-5-0762.flac|title2=Part 2 (4:24)|description2=Piece by [[Johann Sebastian Bach]], both parts performed in 1928 by the [[Philadelphia Orchestra]] under the direction of Leopold Stokowski}}Stokowski rapidly gained a reputation as a musical showman. His flair for the theatrical included grand gestures, such as throwing the sheet music on the floor to show he did not need to conduct from a score. He also experimented with new lighting arrangements in the concert hall,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/fridayreview/story/0,,757640,00.html|title=Are concerts killing music?|newspaper=The Guardian|author=David Lasserson|date=19 July 2002|access-date=11 April 2007}}</ref> at one point conducting in a dark hall with only his head and hands lighted, at other times arranging the lights so they would cast theatrical shadows of his head and hands. Late in the 1929-1930 symphony season, Stokowski started conducting without a baton. His free-hand manner of conducting soon became one of his trademarks. On the musical side, Stokowski nurtured the orchestra and shaped the "Stokowski" sound, or what became known as the "Philadelphia Sound".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://articles.philly.com/2007-01-26/news/25221833_1_leopold-stokowski-philadelphia-sound-philadelphia-orchestra|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140810200146/http://articles.philly.com/2007-01-26/news/25221833_1_leopold-stokowski-philadelphia-sound-philadelphia-orchestra|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 August 2014|title=Leopold Stokowski, the father of the Philadelphia Sound|website=The Philadelphia Inquirer|author=David Patrick Stearns|date=26 January 2007|access-date=11 April 2007}}</ref> He encouraged "[[free bowing]]" from the string section, "free breathing" from the brass section, and continually altered the seating arrangements of the orchestra's sections, as well as the acoustics of the hall, in response to his urge to create a better sound. Stokowski is credited as the first conductor to adopt the seating plan that is used by most orchestras today, with first and second violins together on the conductor's left, and the violas and cellos to the right.<ref>Preben Opperby, ''Leopold Stokowski'', Great Performers, Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Midas / New York: Hippocrene, 1982, {{ISBN|978-0-88254-658-2}}, p.&nbsp;127, reproduces four of Stokowski's seating plans, of which illustration No. 2 shows the string sections as here described.</ref>
[[File:Philadelphia Orchestra at American premiere of Mahler's 8th Symphony (1916).jpg|thumb|250px|Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra at 2 March 1916 American premiere of [[Gustav Mahler|Mahler]]'s [[Symphony of a Thousand|8th Symphony]]]]
Stokowski also became known for modifying the [[orchestration]]s of some of the works that he conducted, as was a standard practice for conductors prior to the second half of the 20th century. Among others, he amended the orchestrations of [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]], [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]], [[Jean Sibelius|Sibelius]], [[Johann Sebastian Bach]], and [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]]. For example, Stokowski revised the ending of the ''[[Romeo and Juliet (Tchaikovsky)|Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture]]'', by Tchaikovsky, so it would close quietly, taking his notion from [[Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Modest Tchaikovsky]]'s ''Life and Letters of Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky'' (translated by [[Rosa Newmarch]]: 1906) that the composer had provided a quiet ending of his own at [[Mily Balakirev|Balakirev]]'s suggestion. Stokowski made his own orchestration of [[Modest Mussorgsky|Mussorgsky]]'s ''[[Night on Bald Mountain]]'' by adapting [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov|Rimsky-Korsakov]]'s orchestration and making it sound, in some places, similar to Mussorgsky's original. In the film ''[[Fantasia (1940 film)|Fantasia]]'', to conform to the Disney artists' story-line, depicting the battle between good and evil, the ending of ''[[Night on Bald Mountain]]'' segued into the beginning of [[Franz Schubert|Schubert]]'s ''[[Ellens dritter Gesang|Ave Maria]]''.

Many music critics have taken exception to the liberties Stokowski took—liberties which were common in the nineteenth century, but had mostly died out in the twentieth, when faithful adherence to the composer's scores became more common.<ref>{{cite book|last=Schonberg|first=Harold C.|author-link=Harold C. Schonberg|title=The Lives of the Great Composers|location=New York|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=1967|isbn=0-393-02146-7}}</ref>{{ external media|float=right|width=230px|audio1 = Listen to Leopold Stokowski conducting [[Sergei Rachmaninoff]]'s ''[[Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini]]'' with the Philadelphia Orchestra and [[Sergei Rachmaninoff]] in 1934 [https://archive.org/details/RACHMANINOFFRhapsodyOnAThemeByPaganini-Rachmaninoff-NEWTRANSFER '''at archive.org''']}}Stokowski's repertoire was broad and included many contemporary works. He was the only conductor to perform all of [[Arnold Schoenberg]]'s orchestral works during the composer's own lifetime, several of which were world premieres. Stokowski gave the first American performance of Schoenberg's ''[[Gurre-Lieder]]'' in 1932. It was recorded "live" on 78&nbsp;rpm records and remained the only recording of this work in the catalogue until the advent of the [[LP Record]]. Stokowski also presented the American premieres of four of [[Dmitri Shostakovich]]'s symphonies, Numbers 1, 3, 6, and 11. In 1916, Stokowski conducted the American premiere of [[Gustav Mahler|Mahler's]] [[Symphony No. 8 (Mahler)|8th Symphony, ''Symphony of a Thousand'']], whose premiere he had attended in Munich on 12 September 1910.<ref>{{Cite web|date=23 March 2016|title=Mahler: The Symphonies in Sequence, Symphony No. 8 {{!}} Carnegie Hall|url=http://www.carnegiehall.org/article.aspx?id=4294967687|access-date=27 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160323193453/http://www.carnegiehall.org/article.aspx?id=4294967687|archive-date=23 March 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=18 April 1982|title=MUSIC VIEW; STOKOWSKI'S LEGEND - MICKEY MOUSE TO MAHLER|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/18/arts/music-view-stokowski-s-legend-mickey-mouse-to-mahler.html|access-date=27 December 2021|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> He added works by [[Sergei Rachmaninoff|Rachmaninoff]] to his repertoire, giving the world premieres of his [[Piano Concerto No. 4 (Rachmaninoff)|Fourth Piano Concerto]], the ''[[Three Russian Songs, Op. 41 (Rachmaninoff)|Three Russian Songs]]'', the [[Symphony No. 3 (Rachmaninoff)|Third Symphony]], and the ''[[Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini]]''; [[Jean Sibelius|Sibelius]], whose last three symphonies were given their American premieres in Philadelphia in the 1920s; and [[Igor Stravinsky]], many of whose works were also given their first American performances by Stokowski. In 1922, he introduced Stravinsky's score for the ballet ''[[The Rite of Spring]]'' to America, gave its first staged performance there in 1930 with [[Martha Graham]] dancing the part of The Chosen One, and at the same time made the first American recording of the work.{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}

Seldom an opera conductor, Stokowski did give the American premieres in Philadelphia of the original version of Mussorgky's ''[[Boris Godunov (opera)|Boris Godunov]]'' (1929) and [[Alban Berg]]'s ''[[Wozzeck]]'' (1931). Works by such composers as [[Arthur Bliss]], [[Max Bruch]], [[Ferruccio Busoni]], [[Julian Carrillo]], [[Carlos Chávez]], [[Aaron Copland]], [[George Enescu]], [[Manuel de Falla]], [[Paul Hindemith]], [[Gustav Holst]], [[Gian Francesco Malipiero]], [[Nikolai Myaskovsky]], [[Walter Piston]], [[Francis Poulenc]], [[Sergei Prokofiev]], [[Maurice Ravel]], [[Ottorino Respighi]], [[Albert Roussel]], [[Alexander Scriabin]], [[Elie Siegmeister]], [[Karol Szymanowski]], [[Edgard Varèse]], [[Heitor Villa-Lobos]], [[Anton Webern]], and [[Kurt Weill]], received their American premieres under Stokowski's direction in Philadelphia. In 1933, he started "Youth Concerts" for younger audiences, which are still a tradition in Philadelphia and many other American cities, and fostered youth music programs. After disputes with the board, Stokowski began to withdraw from involvement in the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1936 onwards, allowing his co-conductor [[Eugene Ormandy]] to gradually take over. Stokowski shared principal conducting duties with Ormandy from 1936 to 1941; Stokowski did not appear with the Philadelphia Orchestra from the closing concert of the 1940–41 season (a lackluster performance of Bach's ''[[St Matthew Passion|St. Matthew Passion]]'') until 12 February 1960, when he guest-conducted the Philadelphia in works of Mozart, Falla, Respighi, and in a legendary performance of the Shostakovich Fifth Symphony, arguably the greatest by Stokowski. The recording of this concert's broadcast had been circulated privately among collectors over the years, though never issued commercially, but with the copyright expiring at the start of 2011, it was released in its entirety on the Pristine Classical label.<ref>Pristine Classical, "Stokowski's Return to Philadelphia," https://www.pristineclassical.com/products/pasc264?_pos=8&_sid=233a69ff1&_ss=r, Accessed 17 December 2024.</ref> 

Stokowski appeared as himself in the motion picture ''[[The Big Broadcast of 1937]]'', conducting two of his Bach transcriptions. That same year he also conducted and acted in ''[[One Hundred Men and a Girl]]'', with [[Deanna Durbin]] and [[Adolphe Menjou]]. In 1939, Stokowski collaborated with [[Walt Disney]] to create the motion picture for which he is best known: ''[[Fantasia (1940 film)|Fantasia]]''. He conducted all the music (with the exception of a "jam session" in the middle of the film) and included his own orchestrations for Bach's ''[[Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565|Toccata and Fugue in D minor]]'' and Mussorgsky's/Schubert's ''Night on Bald Mountain''/''Ave Maria''. Stokowski even got to talk to (and shake hands with) [[Mickey Mouse]] on screen, in a famous [[silhouette]] footage;<ref>{{Cite web|title=Quando Disney incontrò Stravinsky - Cinema|url=https://www.raicultura.it/cinema/foto/2021/03/Quando-Disney-incontro-Stravinsky-6ce2b4e0-c90a-47ca-97d0-d6e244ec551b.html|access-date=27 December 2021|website=Rai Cultura|language=it}}</ref> though, he would later say with a smile that Mickey Mouse got to shake hands with him.<ref>This footage of Stokowski took place after the third number of the program, [[Paul Dukas]]' ''[[The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Dukas)|The Sorcerer's Apprentice]]''; it was later incorporated into ''[[Fantasia 2000]]'' (1999) and tributed with a new animation of Mickey Mouse shaking hands and dialoguing with ''Fantasia 2000'' conductor, [[James Levine]].</ref>

A lifelong and ardent fan of the newest and most experimental techniques in recording, Stokowski saw to it that most of the music for ''Fantasia'' was recorded over Class A telephone lines laid down between the Academy of Music in Philadelphia and [[Bell Laboratories]] in Camden NJ, using an early, highly complex version of multi-track stereophonic sound, dubbed [[Fantasound]], which shared many attributes with the later [[Perspecta]] stereophonic sound system. Recorded on photographic film, the only suitable medium then available, the results were considered astounding for the latter half of the 1930s.

Upon his return in 1960, Stokowski appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra as a guest conductor. He also made two LP recordings with them for [[Columbia Records]], one including a performance of [[Manuel de Falla]]'s ''[[El amor brujo]]'', which he had introduced to America in 1922 and had previously recorded for RCA Victor with the [[Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra]] in 1946, and a Bach album which featured the 5th Brandenburg Concerto and three of his own Bach transcriptions. He continued to appear as a guest conductor on several more occasions, his final Philadelphia Orchestra concert taking place in 1969.<ref>{{cite book|last=Smith|first=William Ander|title=The Mystery of Leopold Stokowski|date=1990|publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press|location=United States|isbn=0-8386-3362-5|page=216}}</ref>

In honour of Stokowski's vast influence on music and the Philadelphia performing arts community, on 24 February 1969, he was awarded the prestigious [[University of Pennsylvania Glee Club]] Award of Merit.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dolphin.upenn.edu/gleeclub/MEMBERS_merit.html|title=The University of Pennsylvania Glee Club Award of Merit Recipients|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120209191432/http://www.dolphin.upenn.edu/gleeclub/MEMBERS_merit.html|archive-date= 9 February 2012 }}</ref> Beginning in 1964, this award was "established to bring a declaration of appreciation to an individual each year that has made a significant contribution to the world of music and helped to create a climate in which our talents may find valid expression."{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}