Stokowski’s Philadelphia Legacy of Rarities

This past Friday Cala Signum reissued an album of performances by the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Leopold Stokowski entitled Philadelphia Rarities. The album had originally been released by the Leopold Stokowski Society in 1993 with a “public” release by Cala Records the following year. It would not be hyperbolic to declare that Stokowski was the most adventurous conductor of the twentieth century. In 1965, at the age of 83 he was still going strong, working with two assistant conductors to direct the first performance of Charles Ives’ fourth symphony with the American Symphony Orchestra; and that performance led to a recording released by Columbia.

Stokowski made his debut as Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra on October 11, 1912, and he maintained that position for 25 years. He seems to have found just the right “sweet spot,” where he could satisfy audience demand for favorite classics while leading them down more adventurous paths without provoking them. Mind you, his personal sense of ego probably contributed heavily to audience appeal; and I am sure that there were any number of Philadelphians that beamed with pride when he shook hands with Mickey Mouse in the Fantasia film that featured both Stokowski and his Philadelphia Orchestra.

Philadelphia Rarities provides thirteen examples of those adventurous paths. None of these are particularly memorable; but some of them rise to Spock-raises-right-eyebrow status. The composer that receives the most attention is Harl McDonald, whose “The Legend of the Arkansas Traveller” would probably raise that eyebrow to its highest level, just to allow Spock to see the full extent of the corn. (I have to confess that McDonald’s name was familiar to me, since he often showed up on programs for Philadelphia Orchestra Children’s Concerts.)

Stokowski himself dominates the spotlight on the opening track with two full-orchestra (highly embellished) arrangements of plainchant. That track was recorded in 1934. It left me wondering whether Stokowski was auditioning to provide the soundtrack from some Hollywood extravaganza. The nadir of the album, however, is “Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Raven,’” composed by Arcady Dubensky with a score-part for a narrator reading Poe’s poem. Since the rhythms of this poem are so well-defined, I have no idea whether the narrator’s part includes rhythmic notation. However, the narration on this recording by Benjamin de Loache is so over-dramatized that the very idea of this composition comes across as ludicrous.

Cover of 1896 sheet music of selections from Sousa’s El Capitan operetta (Library of Congress, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Far more satisfying are the final two tracks of marches by John Philip Sousa. There is no indication of how they were arranged for orchestra. I would not be surprised if Sousa provided the arrangements, since his own instrumental talents included the violin. Furthermore, the thematic material for “El Capitan” draws upon music that Sousa had composed for an operetta of the same name, which would have been performed with orchestral resources.

There is no doubt that Philadelphia Rarities is a document of memories that are now about a century old, but the fondness of those memories can only be decided by the preferences of the listener!