Koussevitzky’s 1944 recording of Harold in Italy was the first ever commercially available, and as RL said when an earlier CD transfer appeared from Biddulph (7/95), its fires still remained undimmed when formidable rivals subsequently appeared, including two also with Primrose as soloist, respectively with Beecham and Munch conducting (Philips, 12/52 and RCA Victor, 4/59). The very opening has an urgency I have never known in any other reading, for after setting a good flowing pace for the introduction, not much faster than with most rivals, Koussevitzky then keeps pressing ahead, creating a tension which has rarely been matched, leading up to where the soloist enters with opulent tone on the main Harold theme (track 1, 2'51''). Each movement is then characterized just as vividly and dramatically. As RC says in his note for the Biddulph issue, Koussevitzky’s is a red-blooded, wholly abandoned approach, and Primrose’s reading reflects that, warmer and more colourful than his others on disc.
In his review of the Biddulph disc RL found the transfer shrill and shallow, failing to recapture the full range of the original 78s. The new Dutton transfer is far preferable, with a much greater body in the sound, and without the distracting surface (or tape) hiss which marred the earlier transfer. That said, it still does not strike me as quite matching what I remember of the 78s, for big tuttis tend to become rather opaque, and that contrasts sharply with the sound of the same conductor and orchestra on the Strauss recording included as a filler, which dates from five months later, in April 1945. That, as I recall, was the first issue which RCA in America pressed in vinyl instead of shellac, a demonstration recording in its time. It brings another fizzing Koussevitzky performance, both warm and brilliant, and the sound is extraordinarily vivid, not only full-bodied but airy, with a keen sense of presence, making the Berlioz seem damped-down by contrast. Whatever the reservations, the disc – at bargain price in Dutton’s Essential Archive series – brings a wonderful demonstration of the mastery of a supreme conductor who has still not had his full due.'