Purists will assert that the Philadelphia Orchestra has no business playing Bach. It's too bad they feel that way, particularly when the conductor is Leopold Stokowski, reunited with the orchestra after a hiatus of almost two decades. Eugene Ormandy invited Stoki back in 1960, and MH2K62345 documents the results: confident, suave recordings of the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto and the conductor's moving arrangements of three Chorale Préludes. Ormandy was an expert arranger and conductor of Bach himself, as can be heard from the balance of this 2-CD set, which contains what used to be Columbia MS6180 ("Bach by Ormandy" – also recorded in 1960) and MS6342 ("The Bach Family" – works by Johann Christian Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, recorded in 1957). None of it may be "authentic," but it all sounds luscious enough to make new friends for the music and the performances.
Ape, scans
