Ormandy: Bartok Concerto for Orchestra - Columbia Masterworks MS 6626, NM

Jacket NM / LP NM

This beautiful LP – a superb collector’s copy – from Columbia Masterworks (MS 6626, US pressing, gray “360 Sound” label, stereo) features Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra’s high-octane account of Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra Sz. 116, sumptuously recorded at Town Hall, Philadelphia, on 13 October 1963 (producer: Thomas Frost).

This was the second of three commerical recordings Ormandy would make of this work, very much a specialty of his. Comparisons with Reiner and the mighty Chicago Symphony Orchestra are not to Ormandy’s disadvantage and he and the a “Fabulous Philadelphians” bring a dynamism and chrome-plated, gleaming sound to this score that is breathtaking.

The exact track list is as follows:

Incidentally, there are superb liner notes on the reverse side of the jacket by Herbert Reid, printed in English only. On the back side of the jacket it states: “Cover photo of the Philadelphia Orchestra taken by remote camera from the ceiling of Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln Center, by Don Hunstein and Sandy Speiser.