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Mendelssohn 'Scherzo' - Stokowski in 'Accidental Stereo' (1941)

1,750 views · Published 9 August 2013 · 4:20 · Indexed 21 October 2026

Channel: adam28xx · 2013 · Music

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When Stokowski left the Philadelphia Orchestra at the end of the 1930s, he formed the All-American Youth Orchestra and made a number of recordings with them for Columbia. 78rpm discs in those days were invariably made in pairs, with a second turntable providing a safety back-up master to the first. Some years ago it was discovered that the pairs of masters that Stokowski recorded for Columbia were labelled "Left" and "Right" respectively. This aroused considerable interest, so as an experiment, the two sides of his 1941 recording of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" were played simultaneously and synchronised. The result has previously been uploaded here. 

Although the experiment wasn't absolutely perfect (some 'wandering' can be heard) there is sufficient space between the two channels to suggest that two separate microphones were used for each turntable. They were closely positioned in the studio but even so a definite 'binaural' effect was produced. That Wagner track, in an exciting performance by a youthful band, came from a Cala Records CD.

Here is another similar "accidental stereo" example from the same sessions: the 'Scherzo' from Mendelssohn's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" also recorded in 1941. It appears on another Cala Records release that collects together a compendium of Stokowski's stereo recordings that had never previously been issued on CD (CACD0551).

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