Edward Johnson’s useful notes seek to portray Stokowski as “one of the foremost interpreters of a great twentieth-century composer”, but what will strike many younger listeners at first is the ‘period’ quality of these performances. While the playing as such is enormously impressive, the interpretations even relatively ‘straight’, Stokowski’s use of (carefully rehearsed) portamento to create a languorous legato line at emotional peaks is wholly out of step with current thinking. And contemporary recordings of this repertoire from published scores are much less prone to copyist’s error.
Stokowski sets a sensible speed for the first movement of the Fifth and at once one is aware of the lustrous quality of the Philadelphia strings. The long-limbed second subject is indescribably luscious, taken at a deliberate tempo not exactly signalled by the preceding bars. The effect is repeated in the recapitulation so it isn’t attributable to a side-join. The scherzo I found rather uncomfortable, almost a gabble with details smudged, but the slow movement – huge portamentos at the start of course – is marvellous. Few recent recordings have anything like this depth of feeling.
Stokowski’s reading of the Sixth is if anything even finer, the recording rather firmer too. A surprisingly deliberate tempo for the first movement is effortlessly sustained throughout. The second movement is here sometimes more piercingly loud than you feel the conductor would have wanted, but the Presto finale is the surprise, relatively steady to bring parallels with the Prokofiev of the Classical Symphony. There is an odd break 3'28'' into the movement.
Stokowski gave the Sixth its Western premiere and this was its first recording. He remade both symphonies in the LP era but these earlier versions are preferable, glamorized only at the most superficial level: the warmth and intensity are real. Incidentally, the Largo of the Fifth no longer segues into the finale as it did in a previous CD transfer (Pearl, 1/94). Michael Dutton’s transfers are, as ever, technically adroit, removing all trace of swish to present the musical information in its purest form even if this means uprooting and remaking the sound too radically for some ears. There are of course excellent recordings of both symphonies in stereo, but Stokowski’s pioneering efforts should not be overlooked.'