Even through the dim, single-channel sonics of these broadcast relays you can hear hints of Stokowski’s distinctive Wagner sound as he imposed it upon the London Symphony players–a lush, luxuriant string texture, fulsome, floating woodwinds, and a finely burnished ringing in the brass. Despite his advanced age (he was 85 at the time), Stokowski imbues each work with a kinetic fire that radiates the music’s inner vitality and propels it purposefully from one moment to the next. Listen to the fluid melodic line in Die Meistersinger, or hear the ardent pacing of Brunnhilde’s Immolation Scene, capably sung by soprano Berit Lindholm. There is one stereo item here, the Rienzi overture, with the New Philharmonia orchestra, but the sound quality is still only passable. Besides, Stokowski recorded much of this repertoire with the Royal Philharmonic in fine stereophonic sound for RCA. Assuming you can find it, that Living Stereo CD is still the Stokowski Wagner disc to have, and good though it may be, this one remains fundamentally redundant.
