Lileks, Disney, Mussorgsky, Stokowski and Bach

In Monday’s typically elegant Bleat, James Lileks analyses the musical and animation content of Disney’s Fantasia, with a particular emphasis on Modest Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain. To be honest, I’m not especially familiar with the movie (the DVD version of which, I’m told by my brother, has been made politically correct by cropping out some of the characters), but regardless of any other merits, it deserves to be honoured because the music was conducted by Leopold Stokowski. Between conducting orchestras (principally the Philadelphia Orchestra), Stokowski did the world a great service by transcribing for orchestra a number of Bach’s keyboard works, most especially the Passacaglia and Fugue in C-minor, BWV582 (MIDI file).