The New York Philharmonic Essentials

The history of America's longest-running symphony orchestra is chock full of stylistic variation. The New York Philharmonic's catalogue boasts theatrically exuberant performances from onetime music director Leonard Bernstein, as well as the coolly precise recordings, often inching slowly into red-hot territory, favoured by French modernist Pierre Boulez, the principal conductor of a later era. Sampling each distinct style from the orchestra's vast archive—including the Romantic abandon of Zubin Mehta—makes for a well-balanced survey of symphonic excellence.