Gurrelieder : Stokowski / London Symphony Orchestra, Mccracken, Brouwenstijn, Rankin, etc (1961 Live)+Verklarte Nacht (1952)(2CD)

Schoenberg: Gurrelieder
Gre Brouwenstijn (Tove), Nel Rankin (Waldtaube)
James McCracken (Waldemar), John Lanigan (Klaus Narr)
Forbes Robinson (Peasant), Alvar Lidell (speaker)
London Symphony Orchestra, Edinburgh Royal Choral Union
Leopold Stokowski (conductor)
Live recorded: Edinburgh Festival 20-Aug-1961

Schoenberg: Verklarte Nacht, Op. 4
Leopold Stokowski (conductor) and his Symphony Orchestra
recorded: 1952

Recent releases of broadcast performances by the legendary conductor Leopold Stokowski on the Guild Historical have proved enormously successful and have received glowing praise from the critics worldwide. In this remarkable double-album we bring together two of Stokowski's momentous performances - one live, one studio - of the music of Arnold Schoenberg. It is a little-known fact that Stokowski was the only conductor to perform all of Schoenberg's orchestral music during the composer's lifetime, and he conducted the world premieres of two of the composer's greatest works - the Violin Concerto and the Piano Concerto. In 1961, he led a truly overwhelming account of Schoenberg's great 'Gurrelieder', of which Stokowski had given the US premiere in 1932; nine years before, he made this fabled recording of 'Verklaerte Nacht' with a hand-picked orchestra. The result is an issue of the highest importance, and the booklet notes are by Stokowski himself. ( GUILD )