"These historic and acclaimed recordings have been the stuff of legend for eighty years or more and it’s wonderful to hear them in astonishingly fine sound . . . I had been looking forward to hearing this set from the moment that I had heard of its release, but the reality has far exceeded my expectations. These are some of the greatest performances ever committed to disc and should be enjoyed by all lovers of great music. Many congratulations to Mark Obert-Thorn for his exceptional work and all at Pristine Audio. Roll on Volume 2." - MusicWeb International, January, 2020

This month, we follow up our critically acclaimed first volume of Arturo Toscanini’s complete recordings with the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York with its eagerly-awaited conclusion.

Among the highlights are a superb restoration of his 1931 Beethoven Symphony No. 5 - one of his greatest performances ever recorded but always hampered by poor sound quality. Also here are recordings not heard since the 78rpm era, and a previously unreleased side from 1933. A collector's dream!

When the 88-year-old Leopold Stokowski conducted a work by Charles Ives with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1970, one critic referred to the maestro as "the man who has done more for contemporary music in America than all the rest of his generation put together." Indeed, The New York Times once estimated that Stokowski had given around 2,000 "first performances" (World Premieres, US Premieres, first broadcasts and so on) and we begin this week's release with one of them: Hovhaness's "Exile" Symphony of 1936, receiving its US première.

The Hovhaness was broadcast in December 1942. Just two months later came the other recordings heard in the present issue: Stravinsky's Symphony in C, receiving its world radio première, and Hindemith's Symphony in E flat major - both of these works had been completed in 1940. Indeed of the 24 works Stokowski conducted in the 1942/3 season, only four had been written by composers who'd died before the conductor's birth, and of these, three were in arrangements made by Stokowski!

Just as astonishing as these statistics is the sound quality here. Rarely has the NBC Symphony Orchestra sounded better than on these Ambient Stereo XR remasters. From start to finish this is a fabulous, unmissable treat.

"The production, plus the cast (first-rate, with perhaps one exception) and the wonderful musical ensemble achieved by Carlo Maria Giulini who ... gives us a musical performance second to none, with orchestral playing of the very highest quality.

Where else in the world, except at official festival performances, can one hear a carefully prepared production of this calibre, with the cast remaining unchanged for a whole series of performances?" - Opera magazine, 1961

This superb Carlo Maria Giulini/Franco Zefferelli Covent Garden production of Verdi's Falstaff, with Geraint Evans in the starring role, captivated London audiences in the spring of 1961. Happily a BBC broadcast, captured and preserved for nearly 60 years, allows you to relive their triumph in this fabulous new Pristine release.