Modest Mussorgsky; Igor Stravinsky; Alexander Scriabin - Orchestral Works (Leopold Stokowski)

Information

Composer: Modest Mussorgsky; Igor Stravinsky; Alexander Scriabin

• Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Stokowski)
• Scriabin - Le Poème de l'extase, Op. 54
• Stravinsky - Pastorale
• Stravinsky - L'Oiseau de feu, ballet suite

New Philharmonia Orchestra

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

London Symphony Orchestra

Leopold Stokowski, conductor

Date: 1965; 1972; 1969; 1967

Label: Decca

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Modest Mussorgsky (21 March 1839 – 28 March 1881) is a Russian composer. Composing without training in his teens, he met several composers, with whom he later made up The Five, and received his first composition lessons from Mily Balakirev in 1857. His major works include the symphonic poem Night on Bald Mountain (1867), the great opera Boris Godunov (1868), and the famous piano cycle Pictures at an Exhibition (1874). His 65 songs describe vivid scenes of Russian life. After Mussorgsky’s death, his works were published in drastically edited form, purged of their distinctive starkness and unorthodox harmonies.

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Igor Stravinsky (June 17, 1882 – April 6, 1971) was a Russian composer. Son of an operatic bass, he studied privately with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov from 1902 to 1908. Soon after the impresario Sergei Diaghilev commissioned Stravinsky to write three ballets for the Ballets Russes: Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913). The last of which, with its shifting and audacious rhythms, was a landmark in music history. Later Stravinsky also adopted Neoclassicism and serialism in his composition. His major Neoclassical works include Oedipus rex (1927) and the Symphony of Psalms (1930).

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Alexander Scriabin (6 January 1872 – 27 April 1915) was a Russian composer and pianist, renowned for his innovative contributions to classical music. He studied at the Moscow Conservatory under Anton Arensky, Sergei Taneyev and Vasily Safonov. Scriabin composed almost exclusively for solo piano and for orchestra. Initially influenced by Romanticism, his style evolved into more abstract and mystical realms, incorporating complex harmonies and unconventional scales. His most famous compositions include piano works like Etudes, Preludes, and Sonatas, as well as his symphonic work Prometheus: The Poem of Fire. 

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Leopold Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British-born American conductor known for his flamboyant showmanship, the rich sonorities of his orchestras, and his influence as a popularizer of classical music. Stokowski gained an international reputation as musical director of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1912 to 1936. He directed the New York Philharmonic from 1946 to 1950 and the Houston Symphony from 1955 to 1962; in 1962 he formed the American Symphony Orchestra in New York City. Stokowski made three films with the Philadelphia Orchestra, including Walt Disney’s Fantasia (1940).

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