A Bert Whyte recording of Maestro Stokowski conducting the Houston Symphony at the Houston Civic Center in 1959. The Poem of Ecstasy is a big, one movement work in sonata form that combines the elements of a symphony and a tone poem. The work highlights Scriabin’s development and exploitation of new harmonic ideas including chord structures constructed on intervals of a fourth instead of a third. Coupled on this release is another Stokowski/Houston performance of Amirov’s “Azerbaijan Mugan” recorded on March 16th, 1959 at the Houston Civic Center. Amirov’s composition, masterfully performed by Stokowski and the Houston, exhibits the complicated system of mode scales and fixed melodic patterns characteristic of music of the East.

The HDAD PLUS which is a TWO disc set consisting of a two sided DVD-10 disc containing DVD Audio and DVD Video formats PLUS a bonus CD from a separate 16 bit / 44.1 kHz two channel capture done simultaneously for the CD format to avoid non-integer down sampling and hence provide for maximum quality for the CD all transferred DIRECTLY FROM THE 35mm MAGNETIC FILM using a vintage Westrex 1551 tape machine, with specially built playback electronics that are vastly superior to any others used on these machines to playback the original 35mm tapes. The Len Horowitz / History of Recorded Sound specially modified 1551, fitted with brand new playback heads matched to the revolutionary playback electronics was stationed at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood. With Len Horowitz running the playback machine and Bernie Grundman mastering from the three track 35mm tapes, Classic Records has been able to capture the legendary sound and performances DIRECTLY FROM THE 35mm MAGNETIC FILM through an "ALL TUBE" tape playback system and at 24 bit resolution and 192 kHz sampling rate for use in both the two and three channel presentations included on both the DVD Audio and DVD Video sides of the two sided DVD-10. The level of detail and dynamics on these discs are outstanding and offer a new level of reality in the home environment!

Scriabin The Poem of Ecstasy Track Listing

1. Scriabin: The Poem of Ecstasy 
2. Amirov: Azerbaijan Mugan