Following up on the success of Sony Classical’s recent large-scale Ormandy collections – his monaural discographies with the Minneapolis Symphony and Philadelphia orchestras – the label now presents the conductor’s stereo recordings from Philadelphia containing all recordings released from 1958 to 1963 (plus some fillers from later years).

Eugene Ormandy took over the music directorship in Philadelphia from Leopold Stokowski in 1938 and held the position for 42 years. During that time his name and the orchestra’s became inseparable as he cultivated and further developed the voluptuous sound that originated with his predecessor.

Ormandy and his Philadelphians were among the most prolific recording artists of all time. Between 1944 and 1968 (preceded and followed by contracts with RCA Victor), they were associated exclusively with Columbia Masterworks. Ormandy was a committed recording enthusiast, working quickly and readily accommodating the company’s planning in order to produce best-sellers.

Sony Classical’s new Ormandy/Philadelphia stereo box is filled with familiar and unfamiliar works by virtually every well-known composer (and many forgotten figures), spanning the centuries and covering the stylistic waterfront from Bach (the sons as well as the father) to Beethoven, Berlioz, Borodin, Bartók and beyond. It would be impossible (and pointless) to list them all.

There are numerous CD premières in the new collection. Among them: Ormandy’s complete 1958 recording of Debussy’s Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien with soprano Hilde Gueden and Vera Zorina as the narrator; Bach’s B minor Mass and the Brahms Requiem from 1962; as well as symphonies by Haydn and other works by Borodin, Glinka, Wagner, Poulenc, Casella and American composers including Yardumian, Barati, Rochberg and Dello Joio.