This album is included in the following sets:
This set contains the following albums:
- Producer's Note
- Full Track Listing
- Cover Art
This release is the first in a series devoted to longtime Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director Frederick Stock, and celebrates the 150th anniversary of his birth. All of Stock’s symphonic recordings will be featured in upcoming volumes (his four concerto recordings have already been well-covered on CD reissues), presented in the order in which they were recorded. Many items have not been available since the 78 rpm era. In this volume, all of the acoustics except for the Mendelssohn are being reissued for the first time, as are the electrics of the Dvořák and Thomas overtures and two Strauss waltzes.
Stock was born in Jülich, Germany, on 11 November 1872. His father, an army bandmaster, provided his early musical training. He entered Cologne Conservatory at the age of fourteen studying violin and composition; among his teachers was Humperdinck, and Willem Mengelberg was a classmate. Upon his graduation in 1890, he joined the Municipal Orchestra of Cologne as a violinist. Five years later, he auditioned for the visiting Theodore Thomas, who was recruiting players for his four-year-old Chicago Orchestra. Thomas hired him initially as a violist, but within four years he recognized Stock’s conducting talent and made him his assistant.
When Thomas died suddenly in January, 1905, Stock served as interim music director while the orchestra board attempted to secure the services of such well-known European conductors as Weingartner, Richter and Mottl. When the board’s efforts failed, Stock was appointed for a trial year. He was to remain music director until his death thirty-seven years later (20 October 1942), a record surpassed among major American orchestras only by Ormandy’s tenure with the Philadelphia, and by few other conductor/orchestra combinations throughout the world (Mengelberg/Concertgebouw, Mravinsky/Leningrad).
Stock’s recording career divides neatly into three periods. His Columbia acoustics of 1916-17 (the first recordings made by a credited American orchestra under its own music director) were succeeded, after an eight-year hiatus, by a series of electrical recordings for Victor (1925-30) which included Bach’s B Minor Suite, a Mozart 40th, Schumann’s “Spring” Symphony and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth. After another nine-year absence from the microphone, Stock and the Chicago Symphony rejoined Columbia for two seasons (1939-40 and 1940-41) for an extensive string of recordings including a Mozart “Prague”, the Schubert 9th, the Schumann Fourth, Brahms’ Third and Tragic Overture, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra and numerous short “popular” works, as well as concerto recordings with Milstein and Piatigorsky. Returning to Victor for what turned out to be his final full season with the orchestra (1941-42), he made two much-admired Beethoven concerto recordings with Schnabel, as well as Dvořák’s In Nature’s Realm and the Chausson Symphony.
The acoustics and early electrics presented in this volume benefit from the lack of re-scoring typical of other recordings of the era, in which tubas reinforced the bass line and other instruments that “projected” better were substituted for the original choices. Only the Parsifal excerpt seems to be notably lacking in tympani support, which is nonetheless heard elsewhere among the acoustics. The sound on these reveals a reduced ensemble in small venues; yet the well-disciplined playing of the orchestra is apparent even in the earliest recordings. By the time of their first sessions with the full ensemble in the rather over-reverberantly recorded Orchestra Hall, the Chicago Symphony’s stature among the world’s great ensembles has been firmly established, as has their conductor’s rhythmically flexible and vital interpretive approach.
The sources for the transfers were American Columbia “Tri-Color” label pressings for the acoustics, and mainly “Z” and “Gold” label Victor pressings for the electrics except for the Brahms, which came from a vinyl test pressing. The second side of the Thomas overture and the Handel and Elgar recordings were dubbed very early on in order to prevent blasting on the heavy pickups of the day. These are presented here from undubbed first edition “Orthophonic” pressings, which, though somewhat heavier in surface noise, better preserve the immediacy and dynamic range of the original recordings.
Mark Obert-Thorn
FREDERICK STOCK and The Chicago Symphony, Volume 1
CD 1 Columbia Acoustics, 1916 - 1917 (74:53)
1.
MENDELSSOHN Wedding March from A Midsummer Night’s Dream
, Op. 61
(4:28)
Recorded 1 May 1916 ∙ Matrix: 48763-2 ∙ First issued on Columbia A5844
2. WAGNER Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walküre
(4:36)
Recorded 1 May 1916 ∙ Matrix: 48764-2 ∙ First issued on Columbia A5903
3. GRIEG The Last Spring from Two Elegiac Melodies, Op. 34
(4:39)
Recorded 2 May 1916 ∙ Matrix: 48766-2 ∙ First issued on Columbia A5844
4.
SAINT-SAËNS Bacchanale from Samson et Dalila
, Op. 47
(4:14)
Recorded 2 May 1916 ∙ Matrix: 48770-1 ∙ First issued on Columbia A5903
5.
TCHAIKOVSKY Waltz from Sleeping Beauty
(4:16)
Recorded 2 May 1916 ∙ Matrix: 48772-1 ∙ First issued on Columbia A5860
6. JÄRNFELT Praeludium (2:31)
7. FRANÇOIS SCHUBERT The Bee from Bagatelles, Op. 13, No. 9 (1:48)
Recorded 2 May 1916 ∙ Matrix: 48776-3 ∙ First issued on Columbia A6014
8. BIZET Carmen – Prelude to Act 4 (Aragonaise)
(2:08)
9. BIZET L’Arlésienne – Farandole (1:19)
Recorded 8 May 1916 ∙ Matrix: 48794-2 ∙ First issued on Columbia A5860
10.
WAGNER Parsifal – Processional of the Knights of the Holy Grail
(4:25)
Recorded 8 May 1916 ∙ Matrix: 48796-1 ∙ First issued on Columbia A5894
11. WAGNER Lohengrin – Prelude to Act 1 (4:23)
Recorded 8 May 1916 ∙ Matrix: 48803-2 ∙ First issued on Columbia A5894
12. SUPPÉ Poet and Peasant – Overture (7:30)
Recorded 14 & 15 May 1917 ∙ Matrices: 49193-2 & 49194-2 ∙ First
issued on Columbia A5991
13.
J. STRAUSS II Thousand and One Nights – Waltz, Op. 346
(4:22)
Recorded 14 May 1917 ∙ Matrix: 49195-2 ∙ First issued on Columbia A6005
14.
WOLF-FERRARI Jewels of the Madonna - Intermezzo
(3:10)
Recorded 15 May 1917 ∙ Matrix: 49201-2 ∙ First issued on Columbia A6014
15. SIMONETTI (orch. Stock) Madrigale (2:16)
16. SCHUBERT (orch. Stock) Moment musical, D.780, No. 3
(1:48)
Recorded 16 May 1917 ∙ Matrix: 49203-2 ∙ First issued on Columbia A6026
17.
GLAZUNOV Les Ruses d’Amour, Op. 61 - Waltz
(4:29)
Recorded 16 May 1917 ∙ Matrix: 49204-1 ∙ First issued on Columbia A6026
18.
J. STRAUSS II Voices of Spring – Waltz, Op. 410
(4:20)
Recorded 16 May 1917 ∙ Matrix: 49207-1 ∙ First issued on Columbia A6005
19.
SMITH (orch. Stock) The Star-Spangled Banner
(2:39)
20. CAREY (orch. Stock) America (1:23)
Recorded 28 May 1917 ∙ Matrix: 49205-1 ∙ First issued on Columbia A5977
21. MEACHAM American Patrol – March
(3:57)
Recorded 28 May 1917 ∙ Matrix: 49206-2 ∙ First issued on Columbia A5977
CD 2 Victor Electrics – 1925 - 1926 (75:43)
1. DVOŘÁK Carnival – Overture, Op. 92 (8:51)
Recorded 19 December 1925 ∙ Matrices: CVE 34049-2 & 34050-2 ∙ First
issued on Victor 6560
2. GOLDMARK In Springtime – Overture, Op. 36 (8:30)
Recorded 20 December 1925 ∙ Matrices: CVE 34054-4 & 34055-5 ∙ First
issued on Victor 6576
MAC DOWELL (orch. Stock) Woodland Sketches, Op. 51
3. No. 6: To a Water Lily (2:56)
4. No. 1: To a Wild Rose (2:21)
Recorded 22 December 1925 ∙ Matrices: BVE 34065-5 & 34066-4 ∙ First
issued on Victor 1152
5. SIBELIUS Valse triste from Kuolema, Op. 44
(4:14)
Recorded 22 December 1925 ∙ Matrix: CVE 34067-3 ∙ First issued on Victor
6579
6.
VOLKMANN Waltz from Serenade for String Orchestra, Op. 63
(3:07)
7.
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Flight of the Bumble-Bee from Tsar Sultan
(1:27)
Recorded 22 December 1925 ∙ Matrix: CVE 34068-3 ∙ First issued on Victor
6579
8.
WAGNER Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg – Prelude to Act 1
(9:09)
Recorded 20 December 1926 ∙ Matrices: CVE 37270-7 & 37271-6 ∙ First
issued on Victor 6651
9.
J. STRAUSS II – Wine, Women and Song – Waltz, Op. 333
(4:41)
Recorded 20 December 1926 ∙ Matrix: CVE 37272-4 ∙ First issued on Victor
6647
10.
J. STRAUSS II – Roses from the South – Waltz, Op. 388
(4:44)
Recorded 21 December 1926 ∙ Matrix: CVE 37274-2 ∙ First issued on Victor
6647
11. THOMAS Mignon – Overture (7:59)
Recorded 21 December 1926 ∙ Matrices: CVE 37275-2 & 37276-3 ∙ First
issued on Victor 6650
BRAHMS (orch. Dvořák) Hungarian Dances
12. No. 17 in F sharp minor (1:57)
13. No. 18 in D major (1:07)
14. No. 19 in B minor (1:44)
15. No. 20 in E minor (2:17)
16. No. 21 in E minor (1:20)
Recorded 21 & 22 December 1926 ∙ Matrices: CVE 37277 & 37283 ∙
Unissued on 78 rpm
17. HANDEL – Largo from Serse (“Ombra mai fu”)
(4:40)
Walter P. Zimmermann, organ
Recorded 22 December 1926 ∙ Matrix: CVE 37281-5 ∙ First issued on Victor
6648
18. ELGAR Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, Op. 39 (4:31)
Walter P. Zimmermann, organ
Recorded 22 December 1926 ∙ Matrix: CVE 37282-3 ∙ First issued on Victor
6648
Frederick Stock ∙ Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn
Special thanks to Nathan Brown and Charles Niss for providing source
material
Recording locations: Columbia Studios, New York City (1916-17); Webster
Hotel Ballroom, Chicago (1925); and Orchestra Hall, Chicago (1926)
Total duration: 2hr 30:36
