Leopold Stokowski was the first major foreign conductor to appear at the London 'Proms' concerts following a decision to make them more 'international.' Hitherto they had been mainly conducted by such British musicians as Sir Henry Wood and his successor Sir Malcolm Sargent but from 1963 onwards more and more non-British conductors have taken part.

For his Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall, with the BBCSO on 23 July 1963, Stokowski was asked to conclude the concert with his own orchestration of Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition' in its UK Premiere. The programme also included Britten's 'Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell' and Beethoven's 7th Symphony, both of which have been released on CD.

Stokowski's version of 'Pictures at an Exhibition' omits the two French locations ('Limoges' and 'Tuileries') as he felt the work as whole should be as 'Slavic' as possible. The sequence is as follows:

Promenade 00:00
Gnomus 01:48
Promenade 03:57
The Old Castle 05:07
Bydlo (A Polish Ox Wagon) 08:22
Promenade 10:10
Ballet of Unhatched Chickens 11:00
Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle 12:12
Catacombs 14:40
The Hut on Fowl's Legs (Baba-Yaga) 18:16
The Great Gate of Kiev 20:52

The stereo recording of the broadcast comes from a 'Music and Arts' release (CD-765) to whom all due acknowledgements are made.

свернуть