José Serebrier’s first disc of Stokowski’s romantic Bach arrangements (11/06), mainly of organ music, was outstanding in every way, not just for the performances but for the spectacular recording. The only surprise was that the disc ignored the most celebrated of the arrangements, the one of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor which made such an impact in Disney’s Fantasia. This second instalment begins with that popular work, and the recording brings out to the full, as never before, the subtlety of Stokowski’s orchestrations with their brilliant terracing of texture, with colourings that designedly echo the sound of the organ. Its impact is magnificent, here more than ever.

The other pieces include popular favourites such as the Wachet auf chorale prelude, Eine feste Burg and Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, all sumptuously presented with the strings in particular made to sound glorious, a reflection of Stokowski’s genius in creating a unique string sound, most strikingly in his longtime work with the Philadelphia Orchestra. It is striking how Stokowski separates the different sections as an organist might, reflecting his own early career.

The extra items are all valuable in their way. Popular favourites include what used to be called Purcell’s Trumpet Voluntary but which has long been acknowledged as the work of Jeremiah Clarke; Boccherini’s Minuet, with the central section wonderfully elegant; and the Haydn Andante cantabile now thought to be by an alien hand.

Altogether a most satisfying disc that continues the rehabilitation of arrangements which for far too long were dismissed in this age of determined authenticity.