Whether the mood is jovial, tragic or tender, Bernstein makes the music seem immense. When "Lenny" was alive, I was a bit dismissive of his conducting; hearing these CDs makes me think again.

The remasterings are clean, the packaging handsome, and there is a lot of essential interpretations nicely gathered together. The "Americans" box is particularly interesting . . . more than just another compilation.

. . . submit to one seamless line ¿ "here time becomes space". As in the prelude to "Parsifal", it's possible to lose all sense of external time-measurements in Karajan's hands as he melts the clock.