Robert Stumpf, II wrote:

>Stokowski could take any orchestra and make it sound great.

While I am not as great of a fan of Stokowski as Bob Stumpf, I will say
that when I was dubbing some of the Stokowski Houston Symphony tapes, I
was amazed at the quality of the playing.  They certainly did have some
great first chair players, oboe, clarinet, etc.  but Stokowski made the
ensemble sound great.  While I don't know what happened inbetween, the
Ernest Hoffman years, through about 1950 (some broadcasts survive) versus
the first of the surviving Stokowski broadcasts, 1957, the difference
is unbelieveable.

Karl