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Vaughan Williams Symphony No.4 in F minor
Butterworth A Shropshire Lad
Anthiel Symphony No.4 "1942"
NBC Symphony Orchestra
At the end of 1941 Leopold Stokowski succeeded Arturo Toscanini as conductor of the NBC Symphony Orchestra, though the great Italian maestro was to return as co-conductor for Stokowski's second and third seasons there. In many of his wartime broadcasts, Stokowski made a point of reflecting the times by featuring living composers from Allied countries. On 7 March 1943, for example, he gave the American Premiere of Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky as a tribute to Russia. The following week it was England's turn, with the performance heard here of the Fourth Symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams, who had been a fellow-student of Stokowski's at the Royal College of Music in 1896. Over the years Stokowski programmed most of Vaughan Williams' symphonies as well as the Tallis Fantasia—a work which was to remain in his repertoire right to the end, when he featured it in his last London concert in 1974.
