Stokowski conducts Beethoven 5 & Schubert 8 - London Philharmonic (1969)

With the Beethoven 5th in 1931, Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra made the world’s first ’long-playing’ recording in what was an experimental attempt by RCA Victor to introduce 33.1/3rd LPs to the record buying public. The series was a failure, mainly due to the Great Depression. Even earlier than that, Stokowski had made the first American recording of Schubert’s “Unfinished“ Symphony on a set of acoustic 78s in 1924. On 8 September 1969, at the age of 87, he programmed both works in a London Philharmonic concert at the Fairfield Hall in Croydon, a large town south of London. These performances were given in preparation for a “Phase 4 Stereo“ LP coupling that was made during the next two days. For many of today’s listeners, Stokowski’s performances will doubtless sound old-fashioned, as the speedy ’historically informed’ readings of such works still lay in the future. Even so, the TV commentator Bernard Keeffe was to describe