Eugene Ormandy: Original Jacket Collection

Disc 1 Respighi: The Pines of Rome, The Fountains of Rome, Roman Festivals Disc 2 Moussorsky/Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition/ Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade Disc 3 Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2, Vocalise Disc 4 Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5, Serenade for Strings Disc 5 Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra, The Miraculous Manderin (Suite), Two Pictures Disc 6 Mendelssohn & Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerti (with Isaac Stern) Disc 7 Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1, Cello Concerto (with Mstislav Rostropovich) Disc 8/9 Bach: Orchestral Transcriptions/ "The Bach Album" Disc 10 "The Romantic Philadelphia Strings" including short works by Barber, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Vaughan Williams and more

Out of Print and very rare! One copy in stock!
It's hard to believe that the CD was introduced in 1982 and it has taken 26 years for Eugene Ormandy to have a proper box set released by Sony/BMG of some of his magical Columbia/CBS stereo recordings. How do you choose 10 CDs of Ormandy's Philadelphia Orchestra recordings to include in a box set? He was music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1936 to 1980! His recordings ranged from the 78 era to the LP, stereophonic and up to the early 80's when he did digital recordings for CD. He created the standard for several eras of recording history in the 20th century. Many Americans grew to love and know classical music by hearing Eugene Ormandy and his Philadelphians over the years through his many recordings. I was one of them. As a teenager in the '60's many of my first LPs of classical music, which began my collection, were by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra on Columbia Masterworks (remember that great label?). His early stereo recordings of the standard repertoire were how many music lovers and audiophiles (in those days you were called a "Hifi nut"!) started their classical record collections and auditioned the sound on that new Stereophonic sound system! It's now 2008 and hearing these recordings again made me realize how good Ormandy really was! He was able to get at the essence of a composition without his own ego getting in the way. His performances are second to none and the sound of the Philadelphia Orchestra under Ormandy, particularly the strings, is unmatched to this day. The digital remastering of these stereo recordings by Sony/BMG is superb. They are packaged in mini LP replica sleeves with a booklet which contains track lists, recording dates, notes and a selection of photos of the maestro.