Stokowski's First Recording - Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 5 (1917)
Leopold Stokowski began his musical life as a church organist in London. He took up a similar appointment in New York in 1905 and within a few years he moved to the orchestral podium. It was with the Philadelphia Orchestra, which he took over in 1912, that he became a world famous maestro, not least through the hundreds of recordings he made over the decades. He made his last recordings at the age of 95 in 1977 but here is the very first of them. It was recorded in 1917 using the pre-electric acoustic method, the players grouped around a large wooden horn. Stokowski was later to describe these old 78s as "just awful" but even so, one can hear that even in a Brahms Hungarian Dance, the Philadelphia Orchestra in his hands was already becoming one of the world's finest ensembles. (From a 'Pristine Audio' CD of Stokowski's 78rpm acoustic discs.)
Here's another acoustic Stokowski / Philadelphia recording, this time from 1924, the year before electrical recording was introduced. It's an instrumental version of the "Humming Chorus" which ends Act 2 of Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" ...
• Stokowski conducts Puccini - 'Madame ...
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