5 classical music picks

Pristine Classical (900 recordings). If there's such a thing as a classical-music jackpot, this is it. Pristine Classical has long applied its sound-restoring wizardry to the greatest recordings ever made - Eugene Ormandy's older Philadelphia recordings are well-represented - and now the entire collection is being sold on a variety of hard drives. They're priceless, if pricey. But in separate offers, Pristine gives bulk discounts on its Wilhelm Furtwangler-conducted Ring cycle and the complete set of Beethoven piano sonatas by Artur Schnabel. (Hard drives, about $1,500 at www.pristineclassical.com/LargeWorks/DMC/PADMC01.php)

The Callas Effect (EMI Classics, two CDs and one DVD). Artists of all stripes are having some sort of "effect" attributed to them, so why should the late Maria Callas be left out? Handsomely packaged with a 123-page booklet, this new EMI compilation from her 1950s heyday will be mostly redundant for Callas veterans, but everyone else should be prepared to be astonished - utterly astonished - by her musical precision and profound sense of dramatic truth. Even though the DVD feels like an infomercial, there's enough performance footage from her Tosca for you to feel she's alive and among us. Nobody since has even approached her. ($20.13 at Amazon.com)

Leopold Stokowski (BBC Legends, three CDs). Having made his name in Philadelphia, conductor Stokowski became a fixture in his native England during his final decades (the 1960s and '70s) with guest appearances with the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and New Philharmonia Orchestra. Although he recorded much of the repertoire elsewhere - including Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and Brahms' Symphony No. 4 - Stoky veterans know that every performance was a new adventure. And those who don't know Stoky may hear things they didn't know were possible. ($35.41 Amazon.com)

Samuel Barber Historical Recordings 1935-1960 (Nine CDs, West Hill Radio Archives). Most of Barber's great pieces are performed by the greatest musicians of his time in live performances, many of which have never been commercially released. Highlights include world premieres of the Adagio for Strings with Arturo Toscanini and the Violin Concerto with Albert Spalding in Philadelphia, both with surprisingly fast tempos. Knoxville: Summer of 1915 arrives in three performances by three of the most lustrous voices of the 20th century: Eleanor Steber, Leontyne Price, and Eileen Farrell. Due to copyright restrictions, it's not formally released in the United States, but British mail is fast. ($93.25 at www.prestoclassical.co.uk)

Hispania & Japan: Dialogues. (AliaVox) Montserrat Figueras, Jordi Savall, La Capella Reial de Catalunya and Hesperion XXI. Known for cross-cultural fusions that easily rival Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble, Savall and his smoky-voiced wife, Figueras, have created a program around the revival of St. Francis Xavier's 1549 arrival in Japan, the kind of music he brought there, and what he might've encountered. Much of it is beautiful and uncompromisingly exotic, perhaps equally appealing to those who love early music and to world music fans. ($18.12 at Amazon.com)    - David Patrick Stearns, Inquirer music critic