SCRIABIN: Symphony No. 2. U.S.S.R. TV &...

SCRIABIN: Symphony No. 2. U.S.S.R. TV & Radio Large Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Fedoseyev. Melodiya MLD-32103 (CD). SCRIABIN: Symphony No. 3 (“The Divine Poem”). TCHAIKOVSKY: “Romeo and Juliet,” Overture-Fantasy. Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Riccardo Muti. EMI CDC 7 49115 2 (CD). Late imperial Russia’s foremost musical maverick is well served in these two recordings of mid-career symphonies/symphonic poems. If there is a little more imagination under Slavophile Fedoseyev, the Muti is in richer, more recent sound. Both convey Scriabin’s atonal expressionistic Romanticism, with its idiosyncratic harmonies and rich orchestral colors wrapped around increasingly grandiose mystical, philosophical and artistic theories that are best forgotten. Muti’s Tchaikovsky is suitably exciting.