Leopold Stokowski’s exuberant Don Juan, boasting dizzying speeds on the order of Szell and Reiner, generates real excitement despite the rather harsh-sounding recording. Till Eulenspiegel is even more impressive, especially as the recorded sound is much improved. Stokowski’s famously (some would say infamously) kinesthetic conducting recreates Richard Strauss’ musical images so vividly you’d think you were listening to the soundtrack of an old Warner Brothers cartoon. Factor in the brilliantly virtuosic playing of the New York Stadium Symphony (a.k.a. the New York Philharmonic) and you’ve got one of the great performances of this work. Salome’s dance is another potently realized rendition, as Stokowski shies away not one bit from the score’s occasionally lurid orchestral coloring. Thomas Canning’s neoclassical Fantasy is an odd choice of filler, but it’s an engaging and tuneful work, handsomely performed by the Houston Symphony. Except for the Don Juan, the remastered sound overall is spacious and solid, albeit dynamically constrained.
