In no part of the repertoire was Stokowski more consistently successful than in colourful, romantic Russian music. He and the Philadelphia Orchestra thrilled listeners for many years with their richly expressive, virtuoso performances of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and other figures from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Stravinsky's Firebird Suite fitted pretty well into this category, and though the great conductor didn't shy away from the composer's later output, he obviously had a soft spot for the early ballet suite and recorded it on eight occasions. His 1927 version is predictably opulent in style and very striking.
Gliere's Third Symphony is a much less inspired score and Stokowski reduces its long drawn out 80-minute span to not much more than half the original length. Here the 1940 engineering is not so good for its time and the sound is a bit shrill, confined and lacking in bass. Nor do the Philadelphia sound in tip-top condition—they were coming to the end of a somewhat difficult period when Ormandy and Stokowski were in joint control. Nevertheless, the performance is extremely dramatic and boldly painted. All the shorter items on Biddulph's disc go well, and it's interesting to hear Ippolitov-Ivanov's ''In a village'' via one of the earliest electric recordings. As usual, Ward Marston's transfers are first-rate.
Stokowski made no commercial recording of Rachmaninov's Second Symphony. His live Hollywood Bowl performance from 1946 is preserved in a recording which has a fair ration of surface noise, and though clear enough is a little shrill in tone. As was the custom at the time, Stokowski performs a cut version of the score. He brings out the music's richly melancholic nature in a highly individual, openly heartfelt fashion, and in his hands those long, sweeping melodies have a particular eloquence and poignancy.
The short, but brilliant career of William Kapell (1922-53), was brought to a premature end when he was killed in an air crash. In January 1949 he recorded Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto for RCA with Antal Dorati and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (nla), and a few weeks later played the work in concert with Stokowski and the NYPSO. The live performance is very fast and furious in the outer movements: at the beginning of the finale Kapell adopts a much quicker tempo than in the commercial recording, and contact between him and the conductor is near to breaking point for a minute or two; but in the middle movement there is some elegantly expressive playing. In this item the sound is pretty good for 1949.'