In 1936, Walt Disney felt that the Disney studio's star character Mickey Mouse needed a boost in popularity. He decided to feature the mouse in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, a deluxe cartoon short based on the poem written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and set to the symphonic poem by Paul Dukas inspired by the original tale.
The company immediately ran into the director of the Philadelphia Orchestra at that time, Leopold Stokowski. Stokowski's version for the soundtrack of Fantasia remains one of the most famous. Although too early for high fidelity, the performance was recorded using multi-tracks and was the first use of stereophonic sound in a film. It is the only part of the film for which Stokowski conducted a studio orchestra, rather than the Philadelphia Orchestra.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice was already a popular concert piece, but it was brought to a much larger audience through its inclusion in this film project in 1940.
In 2000, Disney produced a sequel of the Fantasia. The film included the original Sorcerer's Apprentice and adding a few new scenes, also set into classical music. Below is the list of compositions used.
Symphony No. 5 (first movement) by Ludwig van Beethoven
Pines of Rome by Ottorino Respighi
Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin
Piano Concerto No. 2, Allegro, Opus 102 by Dmitri Shostakovich
The Carnival of the Animals (Le Carnival des Animaux), Finale by Camille Saint-Saëns
The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Paul Dukas
Pomp and Circumstance – Marches 1, 2, 3 and 4 by Edward Elgar
Firebird Suite—1919 Version by Igor Stravinsky
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