Leopold Stokowski’s eminence as one of the truly great conductors of the 20th century over a career spanning more than six decades is exemplified in this set, which features live performances in stereo of symphonies and other works he conducted in concert during his final years and which, in many cases, he had premiered on record as well. In one of the many outstanding reviews of these live concerts, the distinguished Times critic William Mann wrote of the 1963 ‘Proms’ premiere of Mahler’s Symphony No.2: “A performance which was superb by any standards, meticulously loyal, noble and deeply felt out of long and thoughtful experience.” The set has been newly remastered to reflect Stokowski’s instructions on how he wanted his recordings to sound.
REVIEW:
A complete concert that the conductor gave in 1970 with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic in 1970 makes for a particularly gratifying disc, because it contains a work that exists in no other Stokowski recording, Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky. It is a wild reading, with mostly quick tempos, although there are extremes in both directions.
