Frederick Stock (November 11, 1872, Jülich

Jülich

Jülich is a town in the district of Düren, in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Jülich is well known as location of a world-famous research centre, the Forschungszentrum Jülich and as shortwave transmission site of Deutsche Welle...

, Rhine Province

Rhine Province

The Rhine Province , also known as Rhenish Prussia or synonymous to the Rhineland , was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822-1946. It was created from the provinces of the Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg...

 – October 20, 1942, Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

) was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

 and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

.

Biography

Stock was born in Jülich

Jülich

Jülich is a town in the district of Düren, in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Jülich is well known as location of a world-famous research centre, the Forschungszentrum Jülich and as shortwave transmission site of Deutsche Welle...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and given his early musical education by his army bandmaster father. At the age of fourteen, Frederick Stock was admitted into the Cologne Conservatory as a student of violin and composition, where he counted Engelbert Humperdinck

Engelbert Humperdinck

Engelbert Humperdinck was a German composer, best known for his opera, Hänsel und Gretel. Humperdinck was born at Siegburg in the Rhine Province; at the age of 67 he died in Neustrelitz, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.-Life:After receiving piano lessons, Humperdinck produced his first composition...

 as one of his teachers, and Willem Mengelberg

Willem Mengelberg

Joseph Willem Mengelberg was a Dutch conductor, famous for his performances of Mahler and Strauss with the Concertgebouw Orchestra.- Biography :...

 among his classmates. After graduating from the conservatory in 1890, Stock was accepted to the Municipal Orchestra of Cologne as a violinist.

Career

In 1895, Stock met with Theodore Thomas, founder and first music director of the then fledgling Chicago Orchestra

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...

 and the man who was to have a decisive impact on Stock's future. Thomas, who was then visiting Germany in search of recruits for his Chicago Orchestra, auditioned Stock and gave him a position as violist in the orchestra. Thomas soon realized, however, that his new violist was also a very talented conductor and in 1899, Stock was promoted to assistant conductor.

After the death of Theodore Thomas on January 4, 1905, Frederick Stock took over the immediate duties of music director. That year, he wrote a symphonic poem Eines Menschenlebens Morgen, Mittag, und Abend, dedicated to "Theodore Thomas and the Members of the Chicago Orchestra." The work was first performed on April 7 and 8, 1905.

Initially, the board of trustees approached Hans Richter

Hans Richter (conductor)

Hans Richter was an Austrian orchestral and operatic conductor.-Biography:Richter was born in Raab , Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother was opera-singer Jozsefa Csazenszky. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory...

, Felix Weingartner

Felix Weingartner

Paul Felix von Weingartner, Edler von Münzberg was an Austrian conductor, composer and pianist.-Biography:...

, and Felix Mottl

Felix Mottl

Felix Josef von Mottl was an Austrian conductor and composer. He was regarded as one of the most brilliant conductors of his day. He composed three operas, of which Agnes Bernauer was the most successful, as well as a string quartet and numerous songs and other music...

 to succeed Thomas. However, the board's executive committee met on April 11, 1905, and resolved: "Frederick Stock unanimously elected Conductor. Trustees voted that the Orchestra should now be known as 'The Theodore Thomas Orchestra

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...

.'" (The ensemble's name was ultimately changed to Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1913.)

Under Stock's direction, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra became one of America's top orchestras, developing a distinctive brass sound that can already be heard in the orchestra's first recordings. An enthusiast of modern music, Stock championed the works of many then modern composers including Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...

; Richard Strauss

Richard Strauss

Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...

 (who, at Theodore Thomas's invitation, had been the CSO's first-ever guest conductor on subscription concerts in April 1904); Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....

, whose Symphony in C

Symphony in C (Stravinsky)

The Symphony in C is a work by Russian expatriate composer Igor Stravinsky.The Symphony was written between 1938 and 1940 on a commission from American philanthropist Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss. It was a turbulent period of the composer's life, marked by illness and deaths in his immediate family...

was commissioned for the orchestra's 50th anniversary; Sergei Prokofiev

Sergei Prokofiev

Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...

, who was soloist in the world premiere of his Third Piano Concerto

Piano Concerto No. 3 (Prokofiev)

Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26 is the best-known concerto by Sergei Prokofiev. It was completed in 1921 using sketches first started in 1913.-Composition and performances:...

in Chicago; Gustav Holst

Gustav Holst

Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....

; Zoltán Kodály

Zoltán Kodály

Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.-Life:Born in Kecskemét, Kodály learned to play the violin as a child....

, whose Concerto for Orchestra was commissioned by Stock; Nikolai Myaskovsky

Nikolai Myaskovsky

Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky was a Russian and Soviet composer. He is sometimes referred to as the "father of the Soviet symphony".-Early years and first important works:...

, whose Symphony No. 21 was commissioned for the orchestra's 50th anniversary; Josef Suk

Josef Suk

Josef Suk may refer to:*Josef Suk *Josef Suk , the elder composer's grandson...

; William Walton

William Walton

Sir William Turner Walton OM was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera...

; Arthur Benjamin

Arthur Benjamin

Arthur Leslie Benjamin was an Australian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He is best known as the composer of Jamaican Rhumba, composed in 1938.-Biography:...

; George Enescu

George Enescu

George Enescu was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher.-Biography:Enescu was born in the village of Liveni , Dorohoi County at the time, today Botoşani County. He showed musical talent from early in his childhood. A child prodigy, Enescu created his first musical...

; and many others.

Frederick Stock's thirty-seven year tenure as head of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was surpassed in America only by Eugene Ormandy

Eugene Ormandy

Eugene Ormandy was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist.-Early life:Born Jenő Blau in Budapest, Hungary, Ormandy began studying violin at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music at the age of five...

's lengthy directorship of the Philadelphia Orchestra

Philadelphia Orchestra

The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...

. Soon after Stock's death in Chicago on 20 October 1942, Désiré Defauw

Désiré Defauw

Désiré Defauw was a Belgian conductor and violinist.He was professor of conducting at the Brussels Conservatory and was the first conductor of the Orchestre National de Belgique from 1937...

 was chosen as his successor.

In 1936, when Stock was less and less able to conduct himself, Hans Lange

Hans Lange

Hans Lange was a German-American conductor and musician. He was a son of Paul Lange, who had been a lecturer for music at the American College for Girls and German High School Istanbul in the 1890s, and later was appointed the Sultan's director of music...

, formerly assistant of Toscanini

Arturo Toscanini

Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...

 in New York, was hired as conductor at CSO. He remained at CSO also during Defauw's tenure and was one of the mentors of Chicago composer Leon Stein

Leon Stein

Leon Stein was an American composer and music analyst.Stein attended DePaul University, where he achieved his MM in 1935 and his Ph.D. in 1949; he studied under Leo Sowerby, Eric DeLamarter, Frederick Stock, and Hans Lange...

.

Recorded legacy

In 1916 the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, under Stock's baton, made its first set of recordings for the Columbia label in New York while on tour. The orchestra later made its first electrical recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company

Victor Talking Machine Company

The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American corporation, the leading American producer of phonographs and phonograph records and one of the leading phonograph companies in the world at the time. It was headquartered in Camden, New Jersey....

 in 1925, including a performance of Karl Goldmark

Karl Goldmark

Karl Goldmark, also known originally as Károly Goldmark and later sometimes as Carl Goldmark; May 18, 1830, Keszthely – January 2, 1915, Vienna) was a Hungarian composer.- Life and career :...

's In Springtime overture; these early recordings were made in Victor's Chicago studios and within a couple of years the orchestra was recorded in Orchestra Hall

Orchestra Hall

Orchestra Hall may refer to:*Symphony Center, home of Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Illinois*Orchestra Hall *Orchestra Hall...

. Abandoning recording for several years after 1930, the CSO then went back to Columbia for a long series of recordings, only to finally return to RCA Victor in 1941-1942 for its final series of recordings under Stock. Stock's last studio recording, Ernest Chausson

Ernest Chausson

Amédée-Ernest Chausson was a French romantic composer who died just as his career was beginning to flourish.-Life:Ernest Chausson was born in Paris into a prosperous bourgeois family...

's Symphony in B-minor, was released posthumously in 1943.

Notable Recordings

• Johann Sebastian Bach: Suite No. 2 in B-minor, BWV 1067 (Ernst Liegl, flute [appointed CSO Principal in 1928]; Recorded December, 1927, Victor)
• Johann Sebastian Bach: St. Anne Prelude and Fugue, BWV 552 (arr. Frederick Stock) (Recorded December, 1941, RCA Victor)
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerti Nos. 4 & 5 "Emperor" (Artur Schnabel, pianist; Recorded July, 1942, RCA Victor)
• Arthur Benjamin: Overture to an Italian Comedy (Recorded in December, 1941, RCA Victor)
• Johannes Brahms: Hungarian Dances Nos. 17-21 (Recorded December, 1926, Victor)
• Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 3 in F-major, Op. 90 (Recorded [in New York City] November, 1940, Columbia)
• Ernest Chausson: Symphony in B Flat, opus 20 (Recorded 1942, RCA Victor)
• Ernö Dohnányi: Suite for Orchestra in F-sharp minor, Opus 19 (Recorded December, 1928, Victor)
• Antonín Dvořák: In Nature's Realm Overture, Op.91 (Recorded December, 1941, RCA Victor)
• Sir Edward Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance March No.1 in D (Recorded December, 1926, Victor)
• Georges Enescu: Roumanian Rhapsody No.1 (Recorded April, 1941, Columbia)
• Karl Goldmark: In Springtime Overture, Op.36 (Recorded December, 1925, Victor)
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 38 in D-major, K. 504 "Prague" (Recorded November, 1939, Columbia)
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G-minor, K. 550 (Recorded December, 1930, Victor)
• Nicolo Paganini: Moto perpetuo, Op.11 (orchestrated by Frederick Stock) (Recorded April, 1941, Columbia)
• Camille Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No.1 in A minor, Op.33 (Gregor Piatigorsky, cello; Recorded March, 1940, Columbia)
• Camille Saint-Saëns: Danse Macabre, Op.40 (Recorded January, 1940, Columbia)
• Franz Schubert: Symphony No. 9 in C-major, D. 944 "The Great" (Recorded January, 1940, Columbia)
• Robert Schumann: Symphony No.1 in B-flat, Op.38 "Spring" (Recorded December, 1929, Victor)
• Robert Schumann: Symphony No.4 in D-minor, Op.120 (Recorded April, 1941, Columbia)
• Jean Sibelius: The Swan of Tuonela (from the Four Legends of the Kalavela, Op.22) (Recorded November, 1939 or January, 1940, Columbia)
• Frederick Stock: Symphonic Waltz, Op.8 (Recorded December, 1930, Victor)
• Richard Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30 (Recorded January, 1940, Columbia)
• Richard Strauss: On the Shores of Sorrento from Aus Italien, Op.16 (Recorded in December, 1941, RCA Victor)
• Josef Suk: Folk Dance (à la Polka) from A Fairy Tale (Recorded December, 1926, Victor)
• Peter Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker - Suite, Op. 71a (Recorded November, 1939, Columbia)
• Peter Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5, Op. 64 (Recorded December, RCA Victor)
• Peter Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto, Op. 35 (Nathan Milstein, violinist; Recorded March, 1940, Columbia)
• Ernst Toch: Pinnochio - A Merry Overture (Recorded April, 1941, Columbia)
• Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg - Prelude to Act I (Recorded December, 1926, Victor)
• William Walton: Scapino - A Comedy Overture (original version; Recorded April, 1941, Columbia)
• Carl Maria von Weber: Euryanthe - Overture (Recorded January, 1940, Columbia)

External links

• Frederick A Stock Papers at Newberry Library
  Newberry Library
  The Newberry Library is a privately endowed, independent research library for the humanities and social sciences in Chicago, Illinois. Although it is private, non-circulating library, the Newberry Library is free and open to the public...