When Stokowski made the first of these recordings with the New York Philharmonic it was with an orchestra whose playing and image had been greatly enhanced after three years with Artur Rodzinski as musical director. The latter resigned unexpectedly around the time of Stokowski’s first concert as guest conductor over Christmas/New Year in 1946-47. These recordings followed. The more expansive 1947 performances were made in Carnegie Hall, while the 1949 sessions were studio-bound: each disc offers a combination of both.

It is the Wagner repertoire, with splendid wind and brass playing, that stands out. The Shawe-Taylor Record Guide reckoned the rumbustious (studio) Rienzi overture as ‘most exciting and well contrived’ and Stokowski’s individuality is again immediately shown in his crescendo and diminuendo for the repeated horn figure (2'20") which precedes the main allegro of the equally brilliant Der fliegende Holländer.

The characteristically adrenalin-laden and sumptuous Wotan’s Farewell and Magic Fire Music was recorded in Carnegie Hall, where the intensity and following tenderness of the string playing is matched by really fine sound. Hardly less riveting are the two (studio) Götterdämmerung excerpts truncated by Stokowski from the complete score: the Funeral music bursts in at the stabbbing of Siegfried, and again brings radiant strings as well as superb brass.

Stokowski premièred Griffes’ intoxicating, impressionistic White Peacock in 1919, and here he creates a wonderfully sensuous sheen of sound, with lovely wind solos. He captivates the ear, too, in the brief Sibelius and Copland miniatures, while the sinuous ‘In the Village’ from the Caucasian Sketches, with a magically delicate cor anglais solo from Michel Nazzi, is made as memorable as the more famous ‘Procession of the Sardar’ (alas not included).

Not unexpectedly the vividly hedonistic first recording of Messiaen’s L’Ascension concentrates on the orchestral colour and textures, yet, surprisingly, the Tchaikovsky Serenade ‘Waltz’ has less charm than one would expect.

The only real disappointment here is the spectacular but over-driven account of Francesca da Rimini, where the tempi and pulse throughout are less convincing than in Stokowski’s classic later account (see above), where, incidentally, he also reinstated the brief cuts made in this comparatively unsatisfactory first recording. Even so, this pair of discs is well worth exploring.