For those not in the know, Leopold Anthony Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was an English conductor of Polish and Irish descent.

One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th Century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra and for appearing in the film Fantasia.

He was especially noted for his free-hand conducting style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from the orchestras he directed.

Stokowski was music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the NBC Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony of the Air and many others.

He was also the founder of the All-American Youth Orchestra, the New York City Symphony, the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra and the American Symphony Orchestra.

Stokowski conducted the music for and appeared in several Hollywood films, including Disney's Fantasia, and was a lifelong champion of contemporary composers, giving many premieres of new music during his 60-year conducting career.

Stokowski, who made his official conducting debut in 1909, appeared in public for the last time in 1975 but continued making recordings until June 1977, a few months before his death at the age of 95.

Leopold Stokowski recorded 23 LPs for Decca’s “Phase Four” label between 1964 and 1973. All this material has been released on CD before (by Decca and Cala), but this is the very first time everything has been released in a single box (21 CDs + 2 bonus CDs).

CD1:
1. Inspiration: Great Music for Chorus and Orchestra
2. Norman Luboff Choir and New Symphony Orchestra of London

CD2:
1. RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Scheherazade
2. London Symphony Orchestra ∙ Erich Gruenberg (violin)

CD3:
1. MUSSORGSKY: Pictures at an Exhibition
2. New Philharmonia Orchestra

CD4:
1. TCHAIKOVSKY: Swan Lake & Sleeping Beauty Selections
2. New Philharmonia Orchestra

CD5:
1. VIVALDI: The Four Seasons
2. New Philharmonia Orchestra ∙ Hugh Bean (violin)

CD6:
1. WAGNER: Orchestral Music from "The Ring"
2. London Symphony Orchestra

CD7:
1. TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No.5
2. New Philharmonia Orchestra

CD8:
1. HANDEL: Messiah Excerpts
2. London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus

CD9:
1. MUSSORGSKY: Night on the Bare Mountain ∙ STRAVINSKY: The Firebird Suite
2. London Symphony Orchestra

CD10:
1. BEETHOVEN: Symphony No.9 - "Choral"
2. London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus

CD11:
1. BERLIOZ: Symphonie Fantastique
2. New Philharmonia Orchestra

CD12:
1. TCHAIKOVSKY: Romeo & Juliet ∙ MUSSORGSKY: Boris Godunov Symphonic Syntheses
2. L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

CD13:
1. TCHAIKOVSKY: 1812 Overture ∙ BORODIN: Polovtsian Dances ∙ STRAVINSKY: Pastorale
2. Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
CD14:
1. BEETHOVEN: Symphony No.5 ∙ SCHUBERT: Symphony No.8 - "Unfinished"
2. London Philharmonic Orchestra>

CD15:
1. DEBUSSY: La Mer ∙ RAVEL: Daphnis & Chloe ∙ IVES: Orchestral Set No.2 ∙ MESSIAEN: L'Ascension
2. London Symphony Orchestra

CD16:
1. FRANCK: Symphony in D Minor
2. Hilversum Radio Philharmonia Orchestra

CD17-18:
1. Sixtieth Anniversary Concert
2. Wagner ∙ Debussy ∙ Glazunov ∙ Brahms ∙ Tchaikovsky ∙ Chopin ∙ Schubert ∙ Byrd ∙ Clarke ∙ Duparc ∙ Rachmaninov (bonus)
3. London Symphony Orchestra

CD19:
1. ELGAR: Enigma Variations
2. Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

CD20:
1. J.S. BACH: Orchestral Transcriptions
2. Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

CD21:
1. SCRIABIN: Le Poeme de L'Extase ∙ RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Capriccio Espagnol
2. Czech Philharmonic Orchestra ∙ New Philharmonia Orchestra

CD22:
1. BEETHOVEN: Symphony No.7
2. Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

CD23:
1. Bonus Disc: Leopold Stokowski – A Memoir

Listening to all this incredible, simply divine music, and it should come as no surprise to learn that Leopold Stokowski was a relentless innovator. Always experimenting with orchestral seating, he once famously lined up the string basses across the rear of the stage and, in an early instance, massed all the violins on the left side of the orchestra, the cellos on the right.

Spread across these 23 discs is some of the finest music of its time and, perhaps even, ours here today. Imagination and creativity run rife throughout each album captured together here in this wondrous, and Limited Edition box-set collection for the very first time.

Indeed, Stokowski was also one of the very first modern conductors to give up the use of the baton. Replacing it was rather easy for him too as Stokowski simply employed a graceful, almost hypnotic set of his own hand gestures to work his magic.

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