Having heard Maestro Skrowaczewski present this symphony at least three times in concert, and having heard his Saarbruecken recording (which I possess, along with the others of that wonderful series) I would warn that this live performance from London is not one of his highly successful efforts. It's relatively cautious, and the orchestra plays with a certain characteristic British smoothness that may be natural for those musicians but is not quite right in this music (just as it seemed not optimal for Brahms in Boult's stereophonic series for EMI). I would direct readers to the Saarbruecken recording (now on Oehms), a really magnificent reading that has enormous architectural strength and does sound "right:" in fact I place it on the top shelf along with classic versions by Furtwaengler and Walter.
The concert from which this recording emanates - at least in part - has lingered on in my memory as an unexpectedly intense and moving musical experience. The degree of rapport between conductor and orchestra, and the sense that they were actually making music together, not merely reproducing a well-prepared 'reading', was exceptional, and drew me (and, I suspect, many other members of the audience) into the centre of the score.
This was not a high octane reading, but one that glowed from the inside, in which the music was shaped with great subtlety - the opening cello paragraph being an excellent indication of what is to follow - and Skrowaczewski shows a generally unerring sense of momentum, purpose and direction. Unfortunately there is an exception, and it is a crucial one: the final emergence - after so much uncertainty - of E major at the end of the last movement is prepared adequately, but never achieves the grandeur and power that the composer evidently imagined, and the trumpets and lower brass simply fail to crown the work as they should. I don't recall the moment as being disappointing in the concert hall, and the absence of any applause makes me wonder whether the coda has been taken from a rehearsal.
Yet, despite this lapse this is a recording I have already gone back to more than once: so much else satisfies that I'm sure I will re-listen on many occasions.
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