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{{Short description|German conductor and composer (1872–1942)}}
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[[Image:Frederick Stock.png|210px|thumb|Stock in 1904]]
'''Frederick Stock''' (born '''Friedrich August Stock'''; November 11, 1872 &ndash; October 20, 1942) was a German [[Conducting|conductor]] and [[composer]], most famous for his 37-year tenure as music director of the [[Chicago Symphony Orchestra]].

==Early life and education==
Born in [[Jülich]], [[Rhine Province]], [[Germany]], Stock was given his early musical education by his army bandmaster father. At the age of 14, he was admitted to the Cologne Conservatory as a student of violin and composition, where he counted composer [[Engelbert Humperdinck (composer)|Engelbert Humperdinck]] as one of his teachers and conductor [[Willem Mengelberg]] among his classmates. After graduating from the conservatory in 1890, Stock joined the Municipal Orchestra of Cologne as a violinist.

==Career==
In 1895, Stock met with [[Theodore Thomas (conductor)|Theodore Thomas]], founder and first music director of the then fledgling [[Chicago Symphony Orchestra]], who was to have a decisive impact on his future. Thomas, who was then visiting Germany in search of recruits for his new Chicago orchestra, auditioned Stock and hired him as a violist. Thomas soon realized, however, that his new violist was also a very talented conductor and, in 1899, Stock was promoted to assistant conductor.

After Thomas' death on January 4, 1905, Stock succeeded him as 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."<ref name="otis">Philo Adams Otis. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra: Its Organization, Growth and Development 1891-1924, p. 168</ref> The work was first performed on April 7 and 8, 1905.

The orchestra's board of trustees had first approached [[Hans Richter (conductor)|Hans Richter]], [[Felix Weingartner]] and [[Felix Mottl]] to succeed Thomas.  But 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 '[[Chicago Symphony Orchestra|The Theodore Thomas Orchestra]].'"<ref name="otis"/> (The ensemble's name was ultimately changed to Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1913.)

Under Stock's direction, the Chicago Symphony became one of America's top orchestras, developing a distinctive brass sound already heard in its first recordings. An enthusiast of modern music, Stock championed the works of many then modern composers including [[Gustav Mahler]]; [[Richard Strauss]] (who, at Theodore Thomas's invitation, had been the CSO's first-ever guest conductor on subscription concerts in April 1904); [[Igor Stravinsky]], whose ''[[Symphony in C (Stravinsky)|Symphony in C]]'' was commissioned for the orchestra's 50th anniversary; [[Sergei Prokofiev]], who was soloist in the world premiere of his [[Piano Concerto No. 3 (Prokofiev)|Third Piano Concerto]] in Chicago (although he recorded it in 1932 with the London Symphony); [[Gustav Holst]]; [[Zoltán Kodály]], whose ''Concerto for Orchestra'' was commissioned by Stock; [[Nikolai Myaskovsky]], whose Symphony No. 21 was commissioned for the orchestra's 50th anniversary; [[Josef Suk (composer)|Josef Suk]]; [[William Walton]]; [[Arthur Benjamin]]; [[George Enescu]]; and many others. Stock and the Chicago Symphony debuted the Symphony in E minor by [[Florence Price]] on June 15, 1933, Price's first symphony and the first composition by an African-American woman to be played by a major orchestra. Stock's most memorable recordings were of Romantic repertory by Schubert, Schumann, Weber, Goldmark and Glazunov.

In 1936, when Stock was less and less able to conduct himself, [[Hans Lange (conductor)|Hans Lange]], formerly [[Arturo Toscanini]]'s assistant with the [[New York Philharmonic]], was hired to conduct those CSO concerts Stock could no longer conduct. He remained at the CSO during [[Désiré Defauw]]'s tenure, and was a mentor of Chicago composer [[Leon Stein]].

Stock died in Chicago on 20 October 1942.

==Recorded legacy==
In May 1916, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, under Stock's baton, made its first set of recordings for the Columbia Graphophone Company label in Chicago (the specific location is not documented); the first piece recorded on May 1, 1916, was the [[Wedding March (Mendelssohn)|Wedding March]] from [[Felix Mendelssohn]]'s Incidental Music for ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn)|A Midsummer Night's Dream]].'' The orchestra later made its first electrical recordings for the [[Victor Talking Machine Company]] in December 1925, including superbly idiomatic performances of [[Karl Goldmark]]'s ''In Springtime'' overture and [[Robert Schumann]]'s First ("Spring") Symphony; these early recordings were made in Victor's Chicago studios and within a couple of years the orchestra was recorded in [[Symphony Center|Orchestra Hall]], its home.  Abandoning recording for several years after 1930, the CSO then returned 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, whose last studio recording, [[Ernest Chausson]]'s ''Symphony in B-flat'', was released posthumously in 1943.

Stock's 37-year tenure as head of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was surpassed in the United States only by [[Eugene Ormandy]]'s 42 years as music director of the [[Philadelphia Orchestra]]. After Stock's death in 1942, [[Désiré Defauw]] was chosen as his successor.

===Notable recordings===
*Johann Sebastian Bach: Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067 (Ernst Liegl, flute [appointed CSO principal flute in 1928] (December 1927, Victor)
*Johann Sebastian Bach: ''St. Anne'' Prelude and Fugue in E-flat major, BWV 552 (arr. Frederick Stock) (December 1941, RCA Victor)
*Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 4 & 5 ''"Emperor"'' (with [[Artur Schnabel]]) (July 1942, RCA Victor)

{{ external media | float = center|width=280px |audio1 = You may listen to Frederick Stock conducting his orchestral transcription of [[Johann Sebastian Bach]]'s ''St. Anne'' Prelude and Fugue in E-flat major, BWV 552 with the [[Chicago Symphony Orchestra]]  in 1942  [https://archive.org/details/J.S.BACH-OrchestralTranscriptions-NEWTRANSFER/21.Bach-stock-PreludeAndFugueInE-flatMajorst.Anne.mp3'''here on archive.org''']|audio2 = You may listen to Frederick Stock conducting [[Ludwig van Beethoven]]'s Piano Concertos No. 4 & 5 ''Emperor'' with the [[Chicago Symphony Orchestra]] and [[Artur Schnabel]] in 1942  [https://archive.org/details/BEETHOVENTheFivePianoConcertos'''here on archive.org''']}}

*Arthur Benjamin: ''Overture to an Italian Comedy'' (December 1941, RCA Victor)
*Johannes Brahms: Hungarian Dances Nos. 17-21 (December 1926, Victor)
*Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90 (New York, November 1940, Columbia)
*Johannes Brahms: ''Tragic Overture'', Op. 81 and Minuet from Serenade No. 1  (Chicago, 1941, Columbia) **
*Ernest Chausson: Symphony in B-flat, Op. 20 (1942, RCA Victor)
*[[Ernő Dohnányi]]: [[Suite in F-sharp minor (Dohnányi)|Suite in F-sharp minor]], Opus 19 (December 1928, Victor; world premiere recording)
*Antonín Dvořák: ''In Nature's Realm Overture'', Op.91 (December 1941, RCA Victor)**
*Sir Edward Elgar: ''Pomp and Circumstance'' March No. 1 in D (December 1926, Victor)
*George Enescu: ''Romanian Rhapsody No. 1'' (April 1941, Columbia)
*Aleksandr Glazunov: Concert Waltzes in F major and D major (c. 1940, Columbia)**
*Karl Goldmark: ''In Springtime'' Overture, Op. 36 (December 1925, Victor)**
*Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 38 in D major, K. 504 ''"Prague"'' (November 1939, Columbia)
*Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 (December 1930, RCA Victor)
*Nicolo Paganini: ''Moto perpetuo,'' Op. 11 (orch. Stock) (April 1941, Columbia)
*Camille Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33 (with [[Gregor Piatigorsky]]) (March 1940, Columbia)
*Camille Saint-Saëns: ''Danse Macabre'', Op. 40 (January 1940, Columbia)
*Franz Schubert: Symphony No. 9 in C major, D. 944 ''"The Great"'' (January 1940, Columbia)**

{{ external media | float = center|width=280px |audio1 = You may listen to Frederick Stock conducting [[Franz Schubert]]'s [[Symphony No. 9 (Schubert)|Symphony No. 9 in C major ''The Great'', D. 944]] with the [[Chicago Symphony Orchestra]] in 1940 [https://archive.org/details/SCHUBERTSymphonyNo.9TheGreat-NEWTRANSFER/01.I.AndanteAllegroMaNonTroppo.mp3 '''here on archive.org''']}}

*Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 1 in B-flat, Op. 38 ''"Spring"'' (December 1929, RCA Victor)**
*Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120 (April 1941, Columbia)**
*Jean Sibelius: ''The Swan of Tuonela'' (from the ''Four Legends of the Kalevala, Op. 22'') (November 1939 or January 1940, Columbia) 
*Frederick Stock: Symphonic Waltz, Op. 8 (December 1930, RCA Victor)
*Richard Strauss: ''Also Sprach Zarathustra'', Op. 30 (January, 1940, Columbia)
*Richard Strauss: ''On the Shores of Sorrento'' from ''Aus Italien'', Op. 16 (December 1941, RCA Victor)
*Josef Suk: Folk Dance (''à la Polka'') from ''A Fairy Tale'' (December 1926, Victor)
*Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky: ''The Nutcracker'' - Suite, Op. 71a (November 1939, Columbia)
*Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64 (December 1928, Victor)
*Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto, Op. 35 (with [[Nathan Milstein]]) (March 1940, Columbia)

{{ external media | float = center|width=280px |audio1 = You may listen to Frederick Stock conducting [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky]]'s [[Violin Concerto (Tchaikovsky)|Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35]] with the [[Chicago Symphony Orchestra]] and [[Nathan Milstein]] in 1940 [https://archive.org/details/TCHAIKOVSKYViolinConcerto-Milstein-NewTransfer/01.I.AllegroModerato.mp3 '''here on archive.org''']}}

*Ernst Toch: ''Pinocchio'' - A Merry Overture (April 1941, Columbia)
*Richard Wagner: ''Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'' - Prelude to Act I (December 1926, Victor)
*William Walton: ''Scapino'', a Comedy Overture (April 1941, Columbia)
*Carl Maria von Weber: ''Euryanthe'' Overture (January 1940, Columbia)**

Entries ending with ** are particularly outstanding interpretations of emotionally expressive Romantic repertory that was Stock's special stock in trade.{{fact|date=March 2022}}
<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://groups.yahoo.com/group/worldeducationclub/message/37963|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120710225320/http://groups.yahoo.com/group/worldeducationclub/message/37963|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 10, 2012|title=Yahoo &#124; Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos}}</ref>

== Works ==
Several of Frederick Stock's compositions were performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra during his tenure as conductor including:<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3052142?seq=26#metadata_info_tab_contents ''American Music'' Vol. 10 No. 1 University of Illinois Press (Spring 1992) p. 44-45 "Frederick Stock and American Music" by Dena J. Epstein on jstor.org]</ref>

{{colbegin}}
* ''Eines Menschenlebens Morgen, Mittag und Abend'' (1905)
* ''Symphonic Variations'' (1906)
* Improvisation (1907)
* Symphonic Waltz Op. 8 (1907)
* ''A Summer Evening'', symphonic sketch (1908)
*  Symphony No. 1 in C minor (1909)
* ''Festival March'' (1910)
* ''Festival March and Hymn to Liberty'' (1913)
* ''Life's Spring Tide'', overture (1914)
* ''Festival Prologue'' (1915)
* Concerto for Violin in D minor (1916)
* Overture to a Romantic Comedy (1918)
* ''March and Hymn to Democracy'' (1919)
* Symphonic Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 7 (1915)
* Elegy (1923)
* Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in D minor (1929)
* ''A Musical Self-Portrait'' (1932)
* ''Festival Fanfare'' (1940)
{{colend}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
*{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=q69311}}
*{{IMSLP|id=Stock, Frederick}}
* [http://www.newberry.org/collections/FindingAids/stock/Stock.html Frederick A Stock Papers] at [[Newberry Library]]

{{CSO music directors}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stock, Frederick}}
[[Category:1872 births]]
[[Category:1942 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Jülich]]
[[Category:German composers]]
[[Category:German conductors (music)]]
[[Category:German male conductors (music)]]
[[Category:Musicians from the Rhine Province]]
[[Category:Emigrants from the German Empire to the United States]]
[[Category:Music directors of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra]]