CD: Shostakovich: Symphony no 5; Vaughan Williams: Symphony no 8

These two live performances, recorded in the Royal Albert Hall in the 1964 Prom season, vividly demonstrate that even in his 80s Leopold Stokowski had few rivals in inspiring performances of the highest voltage. The Shostakovich Fifth Symphony was his favourite, and here the biting tensions of the opening are masterfully contrasted with the pure, sinuous lines of the second subject in a performance of exceptional refinement and dedication.

The transformation of the Vaughan Williams Eighth Symphony is even more striking. This is generally counted as one of the composer's more relaxed symphonies - it was written when he was 83 - yet Stokowski finds a power and bite in the writing that recall the dramatic thrust of the chilling Sixth Symphony. The BBC Symphony players are magnetised, just as their LSO colleagues are in the Shostakovich.