Well, here's an intriguing paradox. One of our greatest experts in period performance of Baroque music plays modern orchestral versions of Bach (and others) made by one of the world's greatest musical showmen.

Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977), a Londoner who spent most of his life in the USA, began his career as an organist who developed a special love for JS Bach's organ music. Having moved to the USA in 1905, by sheer force of personality and drive, rose rapidly through the ranks. He took over the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1912. Here, he pioneered an entirely new orchestral sound, popularly known as "The Philadelphia Sound". He encouraged all the musicians, notably the string players, to each play as individuals rather than following the usual regimented up and down bow actions; this gave a richness and depth to the body of sound. All the violins were set on the left, cellos on the right, with the string basses across the rear of the stage, as still done today in the Vienna Philharmonic and some German orchestras. Having also abandoned the baton, he directed with graceful, expressive hand gestures - with white spotlights on him!

The first conductor to become a superstar, Stokowski began to fulfil an early dream of being able to work in the nascent Hollywood for three or four months each year. This progressed as planned and culminated in his appearance with the Philadelphia in the Walt Disney cartoon "Fantasia" in 1940. The music he arranged for this film included some of his orchestrations (often mis-labelled 'transcriptions') of Bach's music, which bought the composer to the average member of the public in a new way.

Richard Egarr, of course, is more than a Baroque specialist; he is a versatile musician who commands the full gamut of keyboard instruments. His interests range from early music to contemporary. Egarr's international conducting engagements reflect a similarly extensive repertoire. In his lucid insert notes, he refers to his guest conductorship with the Brussels Philharmonic, and declares himself as true fan of Stokowski's many arrangements and orchestrations. This disc's "Evening with Leopold Stokowski" includes some of the great maestro's most famous Bach arrangements, such as the Toccata and Fugue in D minor (still subject to scholarly debate about its authenticity as being by JS Bach) and the "Air on a G String" (Air from the Overture no. 3). But there are also little known gems: Stokowski's arrangements of Marco Antionio Cesti's aria 'Tu mancavi a tormentarmi' from 'Il Pomo d'Oro' (1668), a Suite of Five Pieces by Henry Purcell, and Palestrina's (attrib) motet 'Adoramus te'.

It is fascinating to listen to some of Stokowski's own early Philadelphia recordings of the Bach arrangements and compare them with Bamert's (Chandos, RBCD) and Egarr's performances. Stokowski described the Toccata and Fugue in D minor as "a vast upheaval of Nature... it gives the impression of great white thunderclouds or the towering majesty of the Himalayas". Even in the thin sounding recordings of the 1920s and 30s, the Philadelphia players explode into the Toccata with ferocious attack, the rest crackling with energy and panache - and with much portamento from the strings. Bamert is cooler, but imposing and noble, while Egarr is a tad slower, more portentous and grandiose, his quieter sections brooding and tensely swelling to great brass-led surges.

In the 'Air from the Overture no 3', Stokowski's Philadelphia strings take this at a very stately pace, full of unruffled calm and stillness, but more passionate and emotional in the repeats. Bamert is somewhat faster, but hushed, poised and more celestial in spirit (partially due to the ambient bloom of the Chandos recording). Egarr follows his Baroque scholarship and takes a more fluid pace', with clearer stalking basses. All these quite different performances are indeed beautiful in their respective ways.

Egarr and the Brussels orchestra also do a very fine job with the Purcell suite, capturing it with the vibrant string sound which Stokowski so admired; their playing of 'Dido's Lament' seems to be the ultimate in orchestral portrayal of grief, those tear-laden cellos in particular singing magnificently.

While not wanting to upstage Stokowski (who could?), Egarr takes the opportunity to offer us some of his own orchestrations. Taking the musical style back to the early emergence of polyphony, he boldly takes a five-voiced motet by Ockeghem (b.1410). 'Interamerata Dei Mater' is densely set with brass, lower woodwind and string basses, at times recalling sackbut consorts. Closely-knit multilayered textures give way to small solo groups, and the full ensemble appears towards the end. Dark it was certainly meant to be, and dark-toned it certainly is, although at times the term "bizarre" occurred to me. Egarr's Water Music Suite, however, takes movements from Handel's Suite no. 2 (and one piece from Suite No 1), making a light-footed and elegant work, mostly distinguished from Stokowski's Handel Suite and Sir Hamilton Harty's ground-breaking orchestrations for the London Prom Concerts by the addition of percussion, giving a military air to the proceedings.

Egarr and the Brussels Philharmonic finish their "Evening with Stokowski" with one of the Maestro's favourite encores, Tchaikovsky's 'Marche Slave'. The orchestra are brimming with enthusiasm to try out their own version of the Philadelphia Sound on this war-house (including Stokowski's request for extra basses), and turn in a performance which would certainly have had an audience on its feet to applaud.

Glossa's engineering, sounding at its best when played several notches higher on the volume control, is excellent. The depth and width of the orchestral array is conveyed most convincingly by the multichannel track of an immediate (but not too close) capture in a Brussels studio. One hears a remarkable amount of detailed texture in the orchestral depths, even compared with the very good Chandos recordings, with glowing harmonic twists and counter-melodies laid in like transparent glazes in a painting.

Although the Brussels orchestra may not have quite the massive heft of the Philadelphia or Chicago orchestras playing on disc in the Stokowski way, theirs and Egarr's version of the phenomenon is more than satisfying, and the carefully planned programme works like magic. I really enjoyed my own "Evening with Stokowski", and I'm sure the disc will be a frequent visitor to my player.

Copyright © 2011 John Miller and HRAudio.net

Performance:

Sonics (Stereo):

Sonics (Multichannel):