These performances have been reissued several times since the appearance of the original ten-inch 1950s mono LPs, but it was not until 1979 that the Brahms was issued in stereo on World Records. The sound on that record, which also used the Schumann as a coupling, was very good, but the new transfers have an extra degree of vividness. The Schumann was recorded in 1953, in mono only, and though the sound is clear enough it does rather sound its age. Not so the Brahms, which scarcely sounds dated at all, and has an amazing depth and bloom for 1955.
If Cantelli had been granted a normal life-span he would still be under the age of 70 today. Sometimes artists who die young receive over-inflated posthumous reputations, but not Cantelli, I think. His death in a 1956 air crash was a terrible blow for the world of music, and these recordings tell us eloquently why this was so. The Brahms has glorious warmth and passion, with expansive, golden phrasing and there is great fire and electricity in the Philharmonia s playing. But the performance has superb clarity and balance too, with an unerring sense of line, and one can understand why Cantelli was a favourite protege of Toscaninni. There is also an Italianate, singing quality in the Schumann symphony, which has seldom been played better on record. Just occasionally rhythms become a little four-square, but there is again clarity and tremendous drive in the playing, with a touching, delicate tenderness in the second movement Romanze, a sense of joyfulness in the Scherzo and an abundance of tension and energy in the finale. I hope there will be more Cantelli reissues in this series.'