Limited 11 CD set. Eugene Ormandys name is inseparably linked with Philadelphia and the orchestra he served as music director there for over 40 years. But before the advent of Ormandy/Philadelphia, there was another historic partnership Ormandy/Minneapolis which, though much briefer, was hardly less pivotal in the Hungarian conductors career. This 11-disc set contains major symphonic works which were still rarely heard when these recordings introduced them to music lovers all across the world. The pioneering 1935 version of Mahlers Resurrection Symphony dominated the record catalogues for nearly two decades, and it remains thrilling today (Gramophone, 1997: This lithe and propulsive reading One is immediately struck by the excellence of the orchestral playing secured by Ormandy in repertoire that was scarcely standard fare in the 1930s). Ormandy and the Minneapolis SO were the first in the US to commit to disc Rachmaninoffs Second (Fervently played and grandly recorded Gramophone, 1936) and Sibeliuss First (Mr. Ormandy seems to be squeezing every ounce of emotion out of it, and lovers of opulence will rejoice Gramophone, 1936), while their Bruckner Seventh was the first commercial American recording of any of that composers symphonies. The box set also contains the recording world premires of Kodlys Hry Jnos Suite, the string-orchestra version of Schoenbergs Verklrte Nacht and Honeggers Concertino for piano and orchestra, as well as American works such as Roy Harriss When Johnny Comes Marching Home, Charles Tomlinson Griffess Pleasure-Dome of Kubla Khan and John Alden Carpenters Adventures in a Perambulator. The electrifying performance of Enescus Romanian Rhapsody No. 1, an Ormandy showpiece, was the first one of that work to reach a worldwide audience, while the selections from Weinbergers Schwanda Ormandys ticket to fame also made their recording dbut in Minneapolis.
