Search - Prokofiev, Villa-Lobos, Debussy :: Cinderella / Ugly Duckling / Uirapuru

Significant Stokowski recordings from 1959 in stupendous sou

Discophage | France | 10/25/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The recordings were made in 1959 and the repertoire is significant for the Stokowski admirer: this is his only recording of Prokofiev's Cinderella Suite (his own concoction, using two numbers from each of Prokofiev's suites from the ballet, and adding two excerpts directly from the ballet) and Ugly Duckling, and of Villa Lobos' Uirapuru and Modinha (from Bachianas Brasileira No. 1). Stokowski made an earlier recording of André Caplet's orchestration of Debussy's Children Corner, in 1949, for Victor, which has been reissued by Cala Bizet: Symphony in C; L'Arlésienne Suites; Debussy: Children's Corner Suite. This later recording consists of only three numbers: Golliwogg's Cake-Walk, Jumbo's Lullaby and The Little Shepperd. The so-called "Stadium Symphony Orchestra of New York" is in fact the New York Phil.



In Modinha, the second movement of Bachianas Brasileiras #1, the sheer body of string sound will surround and sweep you away, although Stokowski sentimentalizes it more than the composer in his own 1958 recording with the French Radio Orchestra (Villa-Lobos par lui-même). The ballet Uirapurù was composed in 1917 and it is a fabulous score, a lush late-Romantic piece filled with the sensuous and primeval-primitive sounds and atmospheres of the Amazons that were to be a long-lasting inspiration of the composer. Stokowski may have, in some spots, less primitive brutality than Eleazar de Carvalho (A Brazilian Extravaganza - Heitor Villa-Lobos: Chôros No. 8 / Fantasia for Cello & Orchestra / Uirapuru / Marlos Nobre: Convergências - Janos Starker, Cello) or Jan Wagner (Heitor Villa-Lobos: Orchestral Music), but he has more sonic sensuality and infinitely more forward-moving tension fraught with pent-up menace, making the two others sound tame and even, in Carvalho's case, literally under Valium in the central section. But Stokowski also exercises a 3-and-a-half-minute cut at 3:30 (consisting of the return of the introductory music, but the astounding solo for saxophone which the second time around is substituted to the flute is unfortunately lost in the process).



I haven't done the same kind of comparative listening on Cinderella. I am just happy to have Stokowski's recording. Regina Resnik sings The Ugly Duckling with a big opera voice but also a tongue-in-cheek mock seriousness, and it works quite convincingly. The texts are not provided in the booklet but the words are overall very comprehensible.



The history of the original Everest label, first founded as a state-of-the art audiophile label recording on 35mm magnetic film, is a complex one. Both The Ugly Duckling and the Children's Corner's excerpts appear to have been originally released without the conductor's approval, but I certainly won't complain.



The Villa Lobos and Prokofiev pieces have had a number of other CD reissues, particularly, at the end of the 1980s, on the Price-less label: there, Cinderella came with Shostakovich's 5th Symphony on Price-less D22697 (Shostakovich Symphony No 5; Prokofiev Cinderella Dance Suite (Price-less)) and the two Villa Lobos pieces on D 24924 with other Villa Lobos and Ginastera compositions conducted by Goosens (Villa-Lobos: Uirapuru, Modinha, The Little Train of the Caipira / Ginastera: Estancia, Panambi~Ballet Suites). Supposedly it was not the original 35mm films but ¼-inch half-track safety dubs that were made available for those earlier reissues. I have the Shostakovich-Prokofiev and honestly, the sound was already very good, but it is marginally more spacious on this Everest remastering, with strings also marginally harsher - but this is noticeable only on comparative listening. As it is, the sonics are stupendous, and Villa Lobos' Uirapuru sounds better than the two recent recordings.



These Everest reissues date from the mid-1990s, when the label was owned by Omega Records Group, the company of Seymour Solomon, the erstwhile founder of Vanguard Records. The remasterings were done with care under Solomon's supervision, when possible directly from the 35mm films. The company and label folded when Solomon died in 2002 and these have become much sought after items. Harkit Records in the UK has started reissuing the material in 2008, presumably not from the original 35mm-film (some of them have been damaged or have deteriorated) but still, judging from certain audiophile reviews, apparently in good sonics. But in some instances the timings are very short, even under the half-hour. So, for those interested, here are the other Stokowski items reissued on these mid-1990s Everest releases:



EVC9004 Strauss: Don Juan; Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche; Salome's Dance

EVC9008 Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra (paired with Kodaly's Psalmus Hungaricus under Ferencskik)

EVC9016 Johannes Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 (the 4th Symphony is with Steinberg)

EVC9024 excerpts from Wagner: Die Walküre/Parsifal

EVC9030 Shostakovich: Symphony No.5, ASIN:B0000023H1 (ran out of authorized links!), also reissued on the above-mentioned Price-less

EVC9037 Scriabin: Poem of Ecstasy, Tchaikovsky: Francesca da Rimini/ Hamlet, ASIN:B0000023H8

9048 Prokofiev Peter and the Wolf (+ with pieces of Chopin and Amirov) ASIN B0000023HH



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