“This vivid act of reclamation has so much to teach, and to enjoy. It shows that Stokowski's arrangements were made not only with love but acuity; that their flair and poetry may survive beyond his own performances, given the flair and commitment displayed by the Brussels Philharmonic” --Gramophone Magazine, July 2011
“What’s a period-instrument specialist doing conducting the notoriously inauthentic orchestral arrangements of Stokowski? Having fun, that’s what. Baroque wonders by Bach, Handel and Purcell become dressed in showmanship...The Brussels Philharmonic plays persuasively for Egarr, and the programme’s terrific” --The Times, 8th January 2011
“What’s a period-instrument specialist doing conducting the notoriously inauthentic orchestral arrangements of Stokowski? Having fun, that’s what. Baroque wonders by Bach, Handel and Purcell become dressed in showmanship...The Brussels Philharmonic plays persuasively for Egarr, and the programme’s terrific” --The Times, 8th January 2011
The charm and sheer full-blooded pleasure offered by Leopold Stokowski’s transcriptions continues to hold sway today – complete with opulent and resonant strings – some three decades after the dynamic conductor’s death. The “Stokowski Sound” was particularly, indeed deliberately, well-suited to the possibilities offered with the development of stereo recording of the maestro’s day, a challenge which Glossa’s engineer Manuel Mohino has happily embraced as much as the Brussels Philharmonic, whose members have taken to the style like ducks to water in this modern-day “Evening with Leopold Stokowski”.
Leading the way with a classy swagger in transcriptions of Bach, Purcell and Palestrina is a conductor in Richard Egarr, perhaps better known for his work with the unadorned originals (he is the Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music, after all), but in reality equally at home in much later music – and he makes no bones about his appreciation of the Stokowski style. About the transcription of Dido’s Lament Egarr says, “It is still Purcell, even in Stokowski's fur coat.” and, for added emphasis, he conjures up his own orchestral confection of Handel’s Water Music. An evening’s entertainment of unalloyed pleasure culminating in a triumphant rendition of the Slavonic March by Tchaikovsky, à la Stokowski, naturally.
Commercial release sheet (PDF)
Leading the way with a classy swagger in transcriptions of Bach, Purcell and Palestrina is a conductor in Richard Egarr, perhaps better known for his work with the unadorned originals (he is the Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music, after all), but in reality equally at home in much later music – and he makes no bones about his appreciation of the Stokowski style. About the transcription of Dido’s Lament Egarr says, “It is still Purcell, even in Stokowski's fur coat.” and, for added emphasis, he conjures up his own orchestral confection of Handel’s Water Music. An evening’s entertainment of unalloyed pleasure culminating in a triumphant rendition of the Slavonic March by Tchaikovsky, à la Stokowski, naturally.
Commercial release sheet (PDF)
