Monday, July 19, 2021

If You Think I Despised Ol' Leopold

NO, I ACTUALLY POSTED a recording Leopold Stokowski conducted of the sadly neglected American composer Ben Weber's Symphony on Poems Of William Blake along with the reminiscences of one of Weber's students, a good composer himself, Roger Tréfousse.  Alas the links to Youtubes of the movements of the symphony are broken.  If I had time I'd edit in those that replaced them at Youtube (the 4th movement seems to be missing), it's worth going to find them as the piece is very good even if the balance of the voice and instruments isn't great.   

The text contains an anecdote Weber told about the rehearsals for the recording that oddly matches one of those told about James Levine only Stokowski comes off a lot better as he and the singer were having a fight over something whereas it was typical of Levine when dealing imperiously with those he thought were too unimportant for him to address sitting in the same room except through his body-guard brother.   It's funny, too, because in the comments I had pretty much the same argument with Simps of Eschaton that we had here yesterday, so he knew the points I made, or, rather, had been exposed to them four years aback.  He's ineducable.  No doubt something that his parents heard from a teacher or more.

I'd recommend listening to the other two works on the album that the old label CRI put out, where I first heard it, also conducted by him, Henry Cowell's Persian Set and Roger Goeb's 3rd Symphony.  You can find all of those at Youtube, as well.  If they might not exactly be to my taste, you might like them. 




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