Some Unpublished Letters of Stokowski

Abstract

The University of Cincinnati Libraries have recently received nine autograph letters of Leopold Stokowski addressed to Mrs. Christian R. Holmes, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra President from 1900 to 1912. Six of the letters, dated 8 July and 7 September 1908, and 13 January, 2 March, 13 March, and 27 April 1909, concern the young musician's application for the position of conductor; the last three are from the spring of 1912 when Stokowski asked to be released from his contract. Though the dates of three of the letters were cited from the CSO Board minutes by Louis R. Thomas in his 1972 dissertation,' the contents of none of them have been known until now. They disclose qualities of confidence and resourcefulness at an early age that were to be characteristic of the great conductor throughout his long life. As is well known, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra was disbanded at the end of the 1906-07 season as a result of a combination of circumstances, though its Board remained intact. In January of 1907 Frank Van der Stucken, the orchestra's conductor since its first season in 1895, had announced his resignation in order to return to composition. Troublesome labor problems were arising; from the beginning of the season the musicians' union had made increasing demands that the Board ultimately found impossible to fulfill. To clinch the matter the season's concerts had been poorly attended, leaving the Orchestra Association with a deficit of $10,000. The Board decided that the orchestra should cease operations. In spite of the disbandment the Board was persuaded by disappointed Cincinnati music lovers to sponsor a 1907-08 season of visiting orchestras, once the deficit had been paid and a sufficient number of guarantors were enrolled.2 But this was not an answer. Season ticket sales were off twenty-five percent from the previous year's poor show-