Leopold Stokowski: Making Music Matter Curated by Marjorie Hassen Otto E. Albrecht Music Library University of Pennsylvania

Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Symphony No. 7, op. 92, A major
Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, n.d.

Conducting score marked for performance by Leopold Stokowski
4th movement, closing measures

Critics have often taken Stokowski to task for altering many of the works he conducted. To informed listeners, these changes could be particularly jarring in performances of standard concert repertory, both on stage and in recordings. Stokowski, of course, was not alone in departing from the intentions of certain composers, as recordings made of others of his generation testify.

An examination of Stokowski's conducting scores turns up many different types of alterations. Dynamic and tempo changes are perhaps the most unobtrusive, while the addition of instruments to the orchestration, doubling of one instrumental part by another, cuts, and unabashed reconceptions of rhythmic or melodic passages are the most blatant. The final measures of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 (above) offer a number of examples of the conductor's interpretive impulses, in this case, related to the work's orchestration.

Stokowski on Altering Composer's Music [RealPlayer required] From an interview with John Amis, July 1956

Publicity photographs
Photographer: Bender
Place: New York
late 1930s