Leopold Stokowski - favourite recordings

[Barbirollians]

Whether a critic likes/dislikes, pans/raves about, or whatever, is totally immaterial to me. Their opinions, like anyone else's are just that. Objective commentaries are something else, and they are what I seek. Nothing more, nothing less.

Indeed, meanwhile what a terrific BBC Legends CD I have picked up if Stokowski with the New Philharmonia in 1968. A gorgeously played but not overblown account of the Poem of Ecstasy and then the Symphonie Fantastique which according to the booklet note he had not conducted since 1914. It’s an extraordinarily moving account and the NPO play their socks off the Scene aux Champs is immensely moving , Le Bal brittle as if dancing with tears - the March taken at a pace is laden with a sort of grotesque celebration of execution .

The finale goes with one hell of a bang - it is a performance that brings home what an extraordinarily modern and original piece this was for 1830. If you can track down a copy it’s not to be missed. Indeed , if you told me I could only keep one recording of the Symphonie Fantastique it would be this one.