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Lecture

Patrick Bade
Leopold Stokowski: Genius and Showman

Wednesday 24.01.2024

Summary

Born in St. John’s Wood in London, Leopold Stokowski invented a colourful and fake persona for himself. He created or reformed several orchestras and probably did more to improve American musical life than any other musician of the 20th century.

Patrick Bade

An image of Patrick Bade.

Patrick Bade is a historian, writer, and broadcaster. He studied at UCL and the Courtauld Institute of Art. He was a senior lecturer at Christie’s Education for many years and has worked for the Art Fund, Royal Opera House, National Gallery, and V&A. He has published on 19th- and early 20th-century paintings and historical vocal recordings. His latest book is Music Wars: 1937–1945.

It’s a mystery. What can you say? As I said, he’s part charlatan. He was, you know, getting away with it, and part genius, he could really do it.

Now I don’t know the answer to that. That is a very interesting question. I would expect him to be, you know, ahead of the game and things like that.