Thrilling Stokowski Orchestral Transcriptions

December 07, 2008

 

Leopold Stokowski arranged nearly 40 works from Bach’s catalogue for the modern symphony orchestra, and José Serebrier’s second volume of Bach-Stokowski Transcriptions is as colourful and wide-ranging as the first (8.557883). In response to popular and critical demand, the present selection begins with the most famous Bach orchestration of all, the celebrated Toccata and Fugue in D minor. This reached its widest public in Walt Disney’s Fantasia and here introduces a program of sumptuous arrangements, including other music from the pre- and post-baroque periods.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra • Jose Serebrier, conductor
Naxos 8.557883

David Hurwitz of ClassicsToday wrote of the first volume of Bach-Stokowski arrangements (8.557883), “Like Serebrier’s and Bournemouth’s previous Stokowski project, dedicated to Mussorgsky, this new release is an unqualified triumph.”

Fono Forum calls Serebrier, “one of the most eminent conductors of our times”, in a review of Serebrier’s Third Symphony (8.559183).

New Release
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra • Jose Serebrier, conductor
Naxos 8.572050

The music on this exciting January 2009 new release is:

Johann Sebastian Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Arioso, Wachet auf (Sleepers, Awake!), Ich ruf’ zu dir Herr Jesu Christ, Adagio, Mein Jesu, Ein feste burg (A Mighty Fortress), Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring, Prelude in B minor, Siciliano
Giovanni Palestrina: Adoramus te
William Byrd: Pavane and Gigue
Jeremiah Clarke: Trumpet Prelude
Luigi Boccherini: Minuet
Johann Mattheson: Air
Franz Joseph Haydn: Andante cantabile
Johann Sebastian Bach: Fugue in C minor

Watch José Serebrier conduct the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in one of the tracks from this disc on YouTube:

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with Conductor José Serebrier, recording session 2008

Recorded on 17 April 2008 at ‘The Lighthouse’ Arts Centre, Poole, UK
Produced and engineered by Philip Rowlands assisted by Patrick Philips

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Biography & Discography

Jose Serebrier Biography & Discography