It’s about time that Sony/BMG paid tribute to one of the best-selling classical artists of all time. Hard-core collectors may carp that most of this material already has appeared on either Essential Classics or Masterworks Heritage, and the fact is that aside from the mono material from the 1950s, Ormandy’s Sony discography has been very well served on CD. The one incomprehensible exception, remedied here, is his Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition, perhaps the best version of Ravel’s orchestration ever recorded and now appearing domestically for the first time in tandem with Ormandy’s voluptuous Scheherazade.
It’s also worth pointing out that although the jackets may be original, the couplings thankfully are not. Thus, The Romantic Philadelphia Strings contains Ormandy’s outstanding Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Greensleeves and one of the best-ever Tallis Fantasias, now freed from its previous CD coupling to works by Delius. The Bartók disc (Concerto for Orchestra, Miraculous Mandarin Suite, Two Pictures) is also outstanding and too little known, so it’s good to have it here. I would have loved to see the same treatment given to Ormandy’s Hindemith, but that’s just wishful thinking. Eyebrows may also raise at the two discs of Bach transcriptions, but not only are they wonderfully done, they do highlight Ormandy’s gifts as a post-Stokowski Bach arranger, an important part of his legacy.
Not surprisingly, Russian music rules in this collection. It was Ormandy’s specialty. We get his glorious Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony and Serenade for Strings, his magnificent (albeit traditionally cut) Rachmaninov Second, and his classic Shostakovich Cello Concerto with Rostropovich coupled to an excellent First Symphony. The composer himself attended these sessions and was dazzled by both conductor and orchestra. These are all must-have recordings. Ormandy was also known during his lifetime as the best concerto accompanist in the business, and this coupling of Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn violin concertos shows his cordial collaboration with Isaac Stern operating at the very highest level.
The first disc contains Ormandy’s Sony recordings of Respighi’s Roman Trilogy, which frankly are not the best versions sonically; I would have greatly preferred to have his other Respighi recordings included–Church Windows, The Birds, and La boutique fantasque. Still, there’s some amazing playing here; the sonority that Ormandy gets in that wild tune at the end of Roman Festivals has to be heard to be believed. The absence of anything by Sibelius (aside from Valse triste in Romantic Strings) strikes me as a bit odd–Ormandy’s First Symphony was incomparably luscious–but then everyone will have their favorites. On the whole, Sony has put together a wonderful collection of vintage Ormandy/Philadelphia material. It was special then, and it remains so now.
