This fabulous five disc set is replete with some of those old Stokowski warhorses all recorded in absolutely mind boggling Phase 4 sound, overblown perhaps but astounding for its time. Decca's remastering is absolutely magnificent and the discs are jam packed with almost six hours of music. This is another fine memorial to a great conductor who remained astonishingly vital until the very end of his life.

The Bach/Stokowski orchestral transcriptions join Bartok's Music for Percussion, Stings and Celeste ; Shostakovich's Symphony No. 11 ; Barber's Adagio for Strings ; Holst's The Planets ; Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht ; Stravinsky's Petrushka Suite and Firebird Suite ; Sibelius's Finlandia ; Orff's Carmina Burana ; Khachaturian's Symphony No. 2 , plus Dukas, Strauss, Vaughan Williams, Tchaikovsky, Frescobaldi, Bloch, Ibert, Mussorgsky, Respighi, Ravel, Palestrina, Gabrielli and more!

This is surely what the name Stokowski linked to Baroque music conjures up - a vast orchestra, deployed with great skill in his fabulously lush orchestrations. Beautifully played and recorded.

How do you describe Leopold Stokowski in one word? Showman, impresario, visionary, firebrand, agent provocateur, magician? Take your pick as he all that and more. It’s 40 years since the passing of one of the most colorful characters in Decca’s roster and one of the most indefatigable innovators in music performance history. His complete recordings for Decca/Phase 4 are presented together for the first time, with a bonus audio documentary featuring an interview with the maestro himself, in a handsome Limited Edition 23-CD boxed set.