DESCRIPTION:
Vaughan Williams's 'Sinfonia Antartica' (his 7th Symphony) was given its New York premiere by the American Symphony Orchestra. conductor Ainslee Cox, in Carnegie Hall in 1970. The ASO had been founded by Leopold Stokowski in 1962 and Cox was his Assistant Conductor for several years. Later he became Music Director of the Oklahoma Symphony (1974-78) with which he gave the US Premiere of Robert Simpson's 3rd Symphony (also uploaded here on You Tube).

Note that the present complete New York performance has been previously uploaded here in separate parts. Note also that this New York broadcast has now been issued on CD by 'CRQ Editions' (an off-shoot of the former 'Classical Recordings Quarterly' magazine) on CRQ CD251.

Incidentally, Stokowski himself had previously conducted the 'Sinfonia Antartica' with the Cleveland Orchestra in 1954 but no recording of that performance seems to have survived. The work itself had its origins in the film score that RVW wrote for the 1948 movie "Scott of the Antarctic."