I actually learned Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony from this well-tested old set of 78s, and will never forget attempting to 'gravitate' to LP (a rather dreary Wilhelm Schuchter recording, issued in HMV's Concert Classics series, 1/60 – nla), only to reject advanced technology in favour of my first love. And with good reason, for although Stokowski cuts the finale (albeit less heavily than Mengelberg did on his pre-war recording), his charting of the symphony's many peaks and troughs reveals an uncanny interpretative intuition, and he inspires some superb playing along the way. RCA Victor's recording is one of their best from the period and Ward Marston's transfer is quite beyond reproach. The fill-ups are valuable in that Stokowski's 1812 Overture proves how a sense of line can compensate for dim sound, while Again, as before, alone is a fine example of apposite orchestration.
Not so, I am afraid, the Chopin transcriptions that follow Stokowski's coltish 1927 New World Symphony. Both Mazurkas are wilfully deflowered then fattened into grotesque, heavily rouged caricatures – though quite what they are attempting to caricature is anyone's guess. Still, one cannot but admire the sheer nerve of it all and, of course, the playing is outrageously plush. The D minor Prelude fares better, if only because the wind-blown orchestration is more appropriate, but both Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody and Borodin's ''Polovtsian Dances'' from Prince Igor (the latter including the rarely excerpted ''Chorus of the Polovtsian Maidens'') are extraordinarily exciting. As to the symphony, the annotator, Edward Johnson, quotes from the original Gramophone review that referred to the performance as ''sound, dignified, broadly thought and aptly reproduced'', although excitable speed changes (especially in the outer movements) and erratic sound suggest some shift in critical perspectives.
The Beethoven/Schubert coupling features fairly 'regular' performances, again brilliantly executed, and with some generous ritardandos in the Beethoven. Here the fill-ups include a rather self-conscious ''Outline of Themes from Beethoven's Symphony No. 7'' (the Dvorak New World is similarly 'explained') and two versions of the best-known Rosamunde Ballet Music, the first (an unissued take) starting arco and including some repeats, the second starting pizzicato and dispensing with them. The second is the better of the two, but the comparison is interesting. The disc ends with Stokowski's jaunty re-vamp of the F minor Moment musical.
Given a choice of these three CDs, I would unhesitatingly opt for the Tchaikovsky concert first – although all the transfers are excellent.'