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About this Piece

Eugene Ormandy (1899-1985) succeeded Stokowski as music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra and continued to develop the lush “Philadelphia sound” that Stokowski had established. Ormandy arranged three of Bach’s pieces for the Philadelphia strings. The first of the set, published in 1941, is the famously lilting “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” from Cantata No. 147, where it occurs twice.