I just got a set of Stokowski CDs in the mail today and man, are they good! The set contains Stoki conducting the usual suspects--Beethoven 5, 7, and 9; Brahms 1; Wagner excerpts, some Rimsky-Korsakov and some Tchaikovsky. It's volume 2 of the Decca Original Masters series.
Stokowski had always been one of my top five favorite conductors, but I think this set pushes Bruno Walter and Otto Klemperer down to distant second and third. The opening chord of the last movement of Beethoven 9 is as anguished as I've ever heard it. The cello and bass recitative is glorious--one moment in particular jumps out: in the fourth recitative, the cellos and basses so rudely interrupt the orchestral recapitulation of the second movement and it's just wonderful! The Egmont overture is also one of the best I've heard. I'll let you know how the remaining four discs are later...
Stokowski is such an interesting figure in the musical world. As the liner notes to the booklet state, he was "born within months of Brahms finishing his second piano concerto [1882] and he was still working when the Sex Pistols first strutted their stuff..." He was a tireless innovator, responsible for premiering (in America, at least) some of the seminal works of the 20th century. He was an adept arranger--many people probably first encountered his orchestration of Bach's d-minor toccata and fugue in the movie Fantasia (and who can forget him bending over at the podium to shake Mickey's hand?). He was one of the first conductors to embrace recording media.
If you're looking for some spectacular recordings of some old favorites--look no further.
