Maestros

I have been on an American maestro kick the last few weeks.  You Tube is a great resource for obsessions like this.  Here is one of my favorite finds, Leopold Stokowski conducting Debussy’s L’après-midi d’un faune with the London Symphony.  When you get past Leopold Stokowski’s eccentricities he was a conductor who revolutionized classical music through his fierce advocacy of new music – he premiered numerous Shostakovich symphonies, Schoenberg’s Gurre Lieder, Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand – and by shaping the sound of the Philadelphia Orchestra.  They don’t make ‘em like Leopold anymore.  Enjoy!