What a typically cool -- and typically weird -- Stokowski disc.

What other conductor would start a concert with a lighthearted and gay Merry Waltz by Otto Klemperer -- yes, that Otto Klemperer, the iron-handed conductor of stern recordings of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem? Who else would follow that curtain raiser with a solemnly ecstatic Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams and a brilliantly colorful Rhapsodie espagnole by Maurice Ravel and then close with the dour and demanding E minor Symphony by Johannes Brahms? No one, that's who.

And the really amazing thing is that Stokowski was an incredible 92 years old when this 1974 performance with the New Philharmonia Orchestra was recorded.

Not that you'd ever guess it from his music-making: his Merry Waltz is robustly vigorous, his Tallis Fantasia is richly luminous, his Rhapsodie espagnole is deftly nimble, and his E minor Symphony is simply magnificent.

True, the performances are typically Stokowski: lines are highlighted, rhythms are accented, colors are dazzling, and shapes are sculpted.

But these were things Stokowski had been doing for decades, and they work as effectively here as ever.

Adding an unusual encore -- a 1964 recording with the London Symphony of Ottokar Novácek's glittering orchestral showpiece Perpetuum mobile -- is surely something the conductor would have done.

Anyone who relishes Stokowski's conducting will surely enjoy this disc, especially since the live sound for both recordings is crisp and strong.