OK, I went to the back wall and pulled out the CD set I had of the Fantasia soundtrack.
Turns out that this is a new digital recording made by an "all-star" orchestra of "concertmasters and star performers from the finest symphony orchestras in the world" chosen and conducted by Irwin Kostal. While the SQ is much better than the original recording, Kostal is no Stokowski and the performance does no match that of the original.
Just for kicks I pulled the Fantasia 2000 soundtrack out.
This soundtrack was recorded by James Levine and the Chicago Symphony. There is one track that is common to all three recordings, Paul Dukas' "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" . In addition to having better SQ, the Levine performance is just a much better reading than Kostal's (which was supposed to be based on the Stokowski performance, but doesn't come close.
I am wondering if this has something to do with the fact that both the Stokowski and the Levine recordings were made with currently sitting orchestras while the Kostal recording was made with a group of musicians who although they were all supposed to be very talented, were assembled specifically for this one recording. Could it be that just like in sports having a group of athletes (or in this case musicians) who can function as a cohesive team is far more important than the sum of the individual talents of the group?
