Stokowski Conducts Nielsen / Symphony No. 2, Op. 16 The Four Temperaments" / Danish National Symphony Orchestra /Leopold Stokowski, conductor / Live performance, 1967 / DVD BONUS: Leopold Stokowski talks with Hans Hansen / DVD
Format: NTSC
Run time: 37 Minutes
UPC: 89948443797
- Aspect ratio : 1.33:1
- Discontinued by manufacturer : Yes
- Product Dimensions : 19.05 x 13.97 x 1.27 cm; 90.72 grams
- Media format : PAL
- Publication date : 8 January 2008
- Actors : Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski
- Studio : Video Artists Int'L
- Number of disks : 1
Leopold Stokowski conducts the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. Also included is an interview with Stokowski. 1967, B&W, Mono, 45 min.
Symphony No. 2 De fire Temperamenter, "The Four Temperaments", is the second symphony by Danish composer Carl Nielsen, written in 1901–1902 and dedicated to Ferruccio Busoni.[2] It was first performed on 1 December 1902 for the Danish Concert Association, with Nielsen himself conducting. As indicated in the subtitle, each of its four movements is a musical sketch of a humor of the four temperaments: choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic, and sanguine. Despite its apparent concept of program music, the work is a fully integrated symphony in traditional symphonic structure.
In 1967, the ageless maestro, Leopold Stokowski, traveled to Denmark to conduct Carl Nielsen's Second Symphony. Stokowski was then eighty-five years old and was conducting this work for the first time. But he had an insatiable appetite for new works and the comments below by the critics attending the concert attest to his mastery of a score he had not conducted before.
It is futile to speak of Stokowski's mastery as conductor and musician. This mastery is so integrated in his personality, it is as basic an element as the water in which a swimmer effortlessly moves.
Stokowski possesses all four temperaments described by Nielsen in his 2nd Symphony, perhaps excepting the phlegmatic. Walter Zacharias in Land and Folk He conducted slightly forward bent, close to the music stand, with economical yet incertible noble gestures.... At times he let the music ride by itself without moving a hand, at times he stressed an accent with a pair of long index fingers. The great man stood as a beam of concentration, playing music with a group of attentive friends - music and nothing but music seemed to radiate from him. The originality and indomitable spirit of the symphony was captured in wondrous fashion, and orchestra and conductor shared the convincing applause.
Robert Naur in Politics Once again, this master of the podium showed that age had not diminished his ability to create orchestral magic. Stokowski was to continue making music on the highest possible level for almost another decade until his death in 1977 at the age of ninety-five.
Carl Nielsen
Symphony No. 2, Op. 16 The Four Temperaments"
Danish National Symphony Orchestra
Leopold Stokowski, conductor
(Live performance, 1967)
DVD BONUS:
Leopold Stokowski talks with Hans Hansen (8:00)
©2008 DR (All Rights Reserved)
Design, packaging, and DVD authoring
©2008 Video Artists International, Inc.
Produced for DVD by Allan Altman
Design: Raymond Edwards
Executive Producer for DVD: Ernest Gilbert
Cover photo by Chuck Coric
