10 CDs. 13 hours of music. 49 live performances dating from 1936 to 1999.
38 American composers. 13 world premieres. 21 conductors. 11 new recordings by Leonard Bernstein. 2 companion books totaling 500 pages of notes, interviews, photos, and facts.

These are the vital statistics, and if that isn't enough to sell you, then how about these additional temptations:

Magnificently restored sound

Even sources from the 1940s have been superbly remastered from the highest quality source material. Just listen to a musical landmark like the world premiere recording of Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring Suite from 1945, conducted by Arthur Rodzinski--you can almost imagine yourself in the audience, so tangible and clear are the sonics.

A Who's Who of Great Conductors in music featured nowhere else

There's George Szell and Dimitri Mitropulous conducting Barber's First Essay for Orchestra and Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance, respectively. From the French wing alone, Pierre Monteux rips into Creston's Second Symphony, Paul Paray offers Cowell's Hymn and Fuguing Tune No. 2, Charles Munch sizzles in Bloch's Concerto Grosso No. 1, while Pierre Boulez earns the composers' seals of approval in Elliott Carter's thorny Concerto for Orchestra and George Crumb's cosmic Star-Child.

Guido Cantelli blazes in Copland's El Salón México. Stokowski's podium magic illuminates Herrmann's Devil and Daniel Webster Suite, as well as Howard Hanson's delectable Serenade for Flute, Harp, and Strings. Hanson himself offers a classic performance of his perennially popular Romantic Symphony. And then there's Bernstein, inimitable in music of Harris, Chadwick, Thomson, Foss, Rorem, Mennin, Schuman, MacDowell, and of course Copland.

Still not convinced? Then how about:

A slew of new, digital recordings from the 1990s

Kurt Masur, a conductor not normally associated with American music, leads the orchestra in exceptional performances of music by Ives (Three Places in New England), Ruggles (Sun-treader), Ellington-Marsalis (A Tone Parallel to Harlem), and Adams (Short Ride in a Fast Machine). Leonard Slatkin and the orchestra's own magnificent first desk players weigh in with concertos by Rouse (for trombone, featuring Joseph Alessi), Bolcom (for clarinet, featuring Stanley Drucker), and Bernstein (the Serenade for Violin, featuring Glenn Dicterow). All of these are studio-quality recordings that would grace any label, assuming that any of today's record companies had the resources, vision, and know-how to market such worthy material. The fact is, America's great orchestras are going to have to produce and sell more and more of their own recordings if they are serious about preserving their legacy for future generations of music lovers.

And the music itself? Simply put, there isn't a single work in this collection that does not deserve regular performance by the major orchestras of the world. What a pity that America's concert audiences and concert promoters have so little faith in the quality of their own music! While European orchestras and composers pepper the airwaves and the record market with productions subsidized by vast government programs in support of the arts, American composers, in the best tradition of private sponsorship and free enterprise, have created a legacy fully the equal of any in the world. If American music lovers won't acknowledge this fact and enthusiastically acclaim projects like this one, then who will?

This set is available through special arrangement with Tower Records (check out our "Purchase CDs and Concert Tickets" page for Tower's phone number and ordering information), and also online, direct from the New York Philharmonic at: www.newyorkphilharmonic.org.

Any more questions?