Скачать или смотреть Beethoven 'Pastoral' Symphony - Stokowski / New York City Symphony (1945)

Leopold Stokowski had made the first American recordings of Beethoven's 5th, 7th and 9th Symphonies in the 1930s with the Philadephia Orchestra but not the 'Pastoral' 6th. He had conducted an abridged version of the work for the soundtrack of Walt Disney's cartoon feature "Fantasia" (1940) and when he formed the New York City Symphony in 1944, the Beethoven 6th Symphony was one of the three 78rpm sets he recorded with that orchestra.

Beethoven was a lover of nature who spent a great deal of his time on walks in the Viennese countryside. He said that the Sixth Symphony is "more the expression of feeling than painting" and his point is underlined by the titles of the movements: (1) Awakening of happy feelings on arriving in the country; (2) Scene by the brook; (3) Peasants' merrymaking; (4) Thunderstorm; (5) Shepherd's song - Happy and thankful feelings after the storm.

Stokowski's recording was made in Carnegie Hall, New York, on 20 February 1945. The transfer heard here was made by Mark Obert-Thorn for Cala Records in 1998 where it was coupled by Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for Winds, a 1940 recording made with the Philadelphia Orchestra.