Stokowski's account of the Sibelius Fourth Symphony was the first recording of the piece ever made. It preceded the Beecham by some five years and, unless I am much mistaken, never appeared in this country at the time though it was included in an anthology RCA issued on LP (6/70—nla). The recording was made during the darkest years of the Depression and reduced strings were used; this tells at the opening of the finale but is hardly noticeable elsewhere. The finale itself is a bit on the slow side, increasingly so during the coda. Here Stokowski, incidentally, resorts to tubular bells, which may have served to prompt the enquiries made by Leslie Heward and Sir Thomas Beecham during the mid-1930s. Overall it is a fine and often atmospheric performance, though not quite as bleak and powerful as the Beecham (EMI and Koch Legacy, 3/92). Perhaps my allegiance to the latter may in part be conditioned by the fact that I grew up in its company, in which case I should similarly prefer Fritz Reiner's 78s of the Shostakovich Sixth (Columbia, 6/37), which I also bought as a schoolboy. Only Mravinsky's HMV Melodiya version (7/72—nla) and Stokowski's later RCA account with the Chicago Symphony (10/70—nla) approached its intensity.
However, this premiere recording, made before the ink was scarcely dry on the paper, strikes me as in some ways the best ever. It brings the whole atmosphere of the period, as well as the work itself, alive. It is completely 'straight' and tempos strike one as just right; Stokowski is steadier than Reiner both in the scherzo and the finale, and every bit as intense, if not more so, in the opening Largo. And what playing he gets from the Philadelphia Orchestra! Wonderfully intense, concentrated in feeling, this performance brings one closer than almost any rival to the awesome times which gave birth to this extraordinary work. I do recall once hearing these records late at night on the old BBC Home Service during the war years.
Both Valse triste and the ''Berceuse'' from The Tempest are no doubt glamorized but powerfully felt, and in the ''Berceuse'' Stokowski evokes the magical atmosphere of Prospero's island as powerfully as did Beecham (EMI, 7/90). Two completely trivial points must be mentioned as they may bring readers up with a start: in the first movement of the Sibelius symphony at 3'17'' (bar 40), the third trombone plays E sharp instead of E natural, and in the first movement of the Shostakovich (track 7, 7'19'', six bars after fig. 16) the bassoon plays a G natural instead of a flat. The transfers by Ward Marston sound very good, but any sonic limitations are in any event soon forgotten, so completely does Stokowski put you under the music's spell.'