In February 1948 Wilhelm Furtwängler returned to conduct in England for the first time since the end of World War II. He appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in no fewer than ten concerts in London, Birmingham, Leicester, Watford and Wimbledon. He then travelled to Argentina, Switzerland and Italy before returning to London in September of that year for a complete cycle of Beethoven symphonies given with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall.

The most significant of these visits by far was that which he made in November 1948 with his ‘own’ Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. This renowned but politically compromised ensemble had earlier been invited to visit England by an Anglican clergyman, John Collins (1905–82), Chaplain and Dean of Oriel College in the University of Oxford, until promoted in 1948 by Prime Minister Clement Attlee to a Canonry of St Paul's Cathedral in London. Collins was a vigorous social reformer and strong opponent of nuclear weapons who in the years after the end of hostilities worked tirelessly for international reconciliation between the former wartime enemies. In September 1947 he made a two-week-long visit to Germany where, apparently on an impulse, he invited the Berlin Philharmonic to make a tour of England under the direction of both the young Sergiu Celibidache and Furtwängler.

There were many diplomatic, administrative, organisational and financial difficulties to be overcome; but these eventually proved surmountable and the tour arranged for November 1948. The first concert was originally scheduled for 3 November in the notoriously difficult acoustic of London's St Paul's Cathedral; but at the last minute the cathedral authorities had a change of heart and the event was relocated to the cavernous Empress Hall in Earl's Court. As the commentator of the London-based news agency Visnews Ltd put it in the breathless newsreel style of the time: