Symphonic poem Tchaikovsky's work as "Isle of the Dead" (1909) does its independence from it. A similar debt to his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov imbues Igor Stravinsky's "The Song of the Nightingale", excerpted from his opera "The Nightingale". Alexander Scriabin's "The Poem of Ecstasy" (1905–08) and "" (1908–10), in their projection of an egocentric theosophic world unequalled in other symphonic poems, are notable for their detail and advanced harmonic idiom. Socialist realism in the Soviet Union allowed program music to survive longer there than in western Europe, as typified by Dmitri Shostakovich's symphonic poem "October" (1967). While France was less concerned than other countries
Symphonic Variations (Franck) minor (with the last movement in F major). Duration in performance is about fifteen minutes, and the instrumentation is piano solo and orchestra: pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons; four horns; two trumpets; timpani; and strings. The work was dedicated to Louis Diémer, who on 15 March 1885 had premiered "Les Djinns", a symphonic poem for piano and orchestra that brought Franck one of his rare critical successes. He promised to reward Diémer with "a little something", and the similarly scored "Symphonic Variations" was the result. Franck started work in the summer of 1885, and completed the piece on