Scriabin · Le Poème de l'extase · Piano Concerto · Prométhée · Ugorski · CSO · Boulez

In some ways, Alexander Scriabin is a hard composer to take seriously, if only because the gap between his pretensions and his achievements is so wide. So we're lucky to have Pierre Boulez on hand to answer the musical question: What's a conductor to do with this guy if the voluptuous excess of, say, Stokowski (or Järvi with this same orchestra in the "Ecstasy") is anathema? The answer in the concerto is to play the music straight, and let soloist Anatol Ugorski's solid musicianship and the music's ample charm carry the day. In the two "Poems", Boulez typically clarifies textures; he focuses more on line and balance than do many other conductors, and if he doesn't ever allow himself to go berserk at the climaxes, at least the Poem of Ecstasy doesn't sound like what a brass-playing friend of mine describes as "The Whining Trumpet". In all, this is a nicely played and recorded program, one whose musical qualities complement rather than supersede more sensationalistic interpretations.

–David Hurwitz, classicstoday.com