Search - Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Leopold Stokowski :: Vaughan Williams - Symphony No. 4 in F minor (Malcolm Sargent) and Symphony No. 8 in D minor (Leopold Stokowski)

Very strong and distinctive performances

R. J. Claster | Van Nuys, CA United States | 07/26/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This recording is taken from live stereo broadcasts from the 1960s of the BBC Symphony with Sargent (4th symphony) and Stokowski (8th symphony). The sound on both is comparable to a good commercial recording of the time. Sargent's performance of the angry and dissonent (for VW) 4th has an urgency and fire that comes close to the composer's famous recording from the 1930s (also with the BBC Symphony). Stokowski's 8th provides a distinctly more volatile approach to that of the classic 1950s recordings of Barbirolli and Boult, which comes to a significant degree from playing the 2nd, scherzo movement in an uncommonly swift, elfin fashion followed by a very broad, expressivo treatment of the highly romantic Cavatina. VW lovers should seek out this pairing."