Leopold Stokowski - Biography, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Filmography (Read)

Leopold Stokowski - biography, date of birth, place of birth, filmography, clips, Actor, Composer.
April 18, 1882 London - September 13, 1977, Nieser Wallop, Hampshire, UK - British and American conductor of Polish-Irish descent. Born into the family of Polish furniture maker Copernicus Josef Stokowski and Irish woman Annie Marion Stokowski (nee Moore). At the age of thirteen, he entered the Royal College of Music, London, becoming one of its youngest students ever. He studied organ playing with Stevenson Hoyt, Walford Davis and C.W. Stanford. In 1900 he received a diploma from the Royal College of Organists (FRCO), after which he went to Paris and Berlin. Upon his return to London, he founded and led a choir at St Mary's Church on Charing Cross Road (1900-1901), and a year later was appointed organist and choirmaster at St James's Church in London. Stokowski studied for a year at Queens College, Oxford and in 1903 received a Bachelor of Music degree there. In 1905 he arrived in New York, where for the next three years he worked as a choirmaster and organist at St. Bartholomew's Church. In Paris, Stokowski learned that the post of chief conductor was vacated in the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra after a tour in France. With the help of pianist Olga Samaroff (who later became his first wife) and thanks to his own entrepreneurial spirit, he managed to get this position, and in 1909 the first concert took place under his direction. From 1909 Stokowski lived permanently in the United States. During his leadership of the orchestra, Stokowski performed for the first time in the United States a number of works by contemporary composers, in particular, Edward Elgar's Second Symphony. Despite the fact that he enjoyed great success, Stokowski left the orchestra in 1912 due to disagreements with the management. In the summer of the same year, the musician moved to Philadelphia, where he led the local symphony orchestra. Thanks to Stravinsky's leadership (until 1936), the Philadelphia Orchestra became one of the best in the world. At this time, the conductor became famous as a "showman" because of some of his extravagant deeds. So, once before performing one of the compositions, he defiantly dropped the score from the console to half a score, thus wanting to show that he would conduct from memory. In 1929, Stokowski abandoned the use of the stick, forming his own free style of leading the orchestra, which became his "calling card". In 1936 Stokowski officially resigned as conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, although over the next two years he continued to perform regularly with him (alternately with Eugene Ormandy), and in 1941 he left the city. In 1940 Stokowski founded the All-American Youth Orchestra, with which he toured; in 1941, despite positive reviews from critics, the orchestra was disbanded. From 1941 to 44, Stokowski was chief conductor of the NBC Symphony Orchestra (from 1942 to 1944 with Arturo Toscanini). Over the three years of cooperation with this ensemble, Stokowski has performed many works by Igor Stravinsky, Alan Hovaness, Darius Millau, Paul Hindemith, Morton Gould and other contemporary composers, including Sergei Prokofiev (Alexander Nevsky, American premiere) and Arnold Schoenberg (Piano Concerto , world premiere). Also promoted forgotten and rarely performed works of English composers - "The Planets" by Gustav Holst, the Fourth Symphony by Ralph Vaughan Williams and others. In 1944, at the request of the mayor of New York, Fiorello LaGardia, Stokowski organized and led the City Symphony Orchestra of New York, whose concerts were intended for the low-income segments of the population: ticket prices were intentionally low, and the performances themselves took place in the evening. Stokowski worked with the orchestra for about a year, after which he left it due to disagreements with the leadership. In 1945-46. led the Hollywood Orchestra, the so-called "Hollywood Bowl". In the late 1940s, Stokowski worked as a guest conductor with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and from 1949-1950 he headed it together with Dimitris Mitropoulos. In 1951 he gave a concert in Great Britain for the first time in a long time. Stokowski's notable projects in subsequent years include work with the Houston Symphony Orchestra (1955-1960), staging of Puccini's opera Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera (1960), creation of the American Symphony Orchestra (1962). Stokowski directed this ensemble until 1972, performing, in particular, the Fourth Symphony by Charles Ives (for the first time in the full version, 1965, received a Grammy for this performance). In 1972 the conductor returned to London, where he spent the last years of his life, giving concerts until 1975. Stokowski died in 1977 of a heart attack and is buried in London. not stopping giving concerts until 1975. Stokowski died in 1977 of a heart attack and is buried in London. not stopping giving concerts until 1975. Stokowski died in 1977 of a heart attack and is buried in London. Stokowski's image in the history of music is very contradictory and, as a rule, is associated with the "popularization" of art and excessive "showmanship" at performances, but this was dictated only by his desire to attract a wider audience to concert halls. In an effort to make academic music more accessible to the American public, Stokowski created a number of his own editions and orchestrations of some famous works (in particular, Bach's Toccatas and Fugues in d-minor), often radically changing the author's dynamics, adding additional percussion instruments and even cutting out "uninteresting" bars, for which throughout his career he was subjected to merciless attacks from critics. The conductor was interested in the most diverse areas of music, considering it "the universal language of mankind", about which he writes in the book Music for All of Us (1943; in Russian translation "Music for All", 1963). The hallmark of the Philadelphia Orchestra under his direction has become a special "Philadelphia sound", which was formed due to the fact that he gave the orchestra's string members freedom in matters of bowing, and doubled the composition of the wind instruments. He also came up with the idea of ??a new seating for the orchestra musicians: with the placement of all violins (both the first and the second) to the left of the conductor, and the cellos to the right. This arrangement is now used in most orchestras in the world. with the placement of all violins (both first and second) to the left of the conductor, and cellos to the right. This arrangement is now used in most orchestras in the world. with the placement of all violins (both first and second) to the left of the conductor, and cellos to the right. This arrangement is now used in most orchestras in the world. Stokowski's contribution to the history of contemporary music is significant. Under his direction, for the first time, more than a hundred new works by contemporary composers were performed, including world premieres of Rachmaninoff's works - the Third Symphony (1936), the Fourth Piano Concerto (1927) and Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini (1934), Charles Ives (Fourth Symphony, complete version, 1965), A. Schoenberg (Violin Concerto, 1940; Piano Concerto, 1944) .
Paying great attention to new works, Stokowski set aside a separate time for their performance on Wednesdays, in case they could not be performed in an evening concert. It was Stokowski who gave the American premieres of Mahler's Eighth Symphony, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Berg's opera Wozzeck, and Schoenberg's monodrama Pierrot of the Moon.
Stokowski left a huge number of recordings, the earliest of which are dated October 1917 (two Hungarian Brahms dances). Many works of the classical repertoire were recorded by him for the first time in the USA.

All Information About: Leopold Stokowski - Biography, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Filmography.
Author: Jane Watson