J. S. Bach / Leopold Stokowski Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BMV 565 (1952)

J. S. Bach / Leopold Stokowski Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BMV 565 (1952) By Walter Frisch, Columbia University Written for the concert America’s Musical Pioneer, performed on March 3, 1996 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Contemporary listeners may recoil in shock when they hear this work. We have become so accustomed…

Read More

America’s Musical Pioneer: Homage to Leopold Stokowski

America’s Musical Pioneer: Homage to Leopold Stokowski By Leon Botstein Written for the concert America’s Musical Pioneer, performed on March 3, 1996 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Fame and success in one’s lifetime do not necessarily ensure respect. Neither do they secure the prospect of a positive posthumous revisionism. The career of Leopold…

Read More

Symphony No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 63 (1911)

Symphony No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 63 (1911) By Bernard Jacobson Written for the concert America’s Musical Pioneer, performed on March 3, 1996 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Why do we value an artist? Is it for the vividness with which he mirrors the society he lives in? Or is it rather…

Read More

Nocturne

Nocturne By Carol J. Oja Written for the concert America’s Musical Pioneer, performed on March 3, 1996 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Although hardly a household name, Colin McPhee (1900-1964) deserves far greater credit than history has given him for the crucial role he played in opening Western composition to the sounds and…

Read More

Piano Concerto (1925)

Piano Concerto (1925) By Carol J. Oja Written for the concert America’s Musical Pioneer, performed on March 3, 1996 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Born in the Ukraine in 1892 and still living in Wisconsin, Leo Ornstein led this century’s first wave of immigration by European composers to the United States. Arriving here…

Read More