Borodin started composing his first excursion into the symphonic form in 1862, while studying with Mily Balakirev. He worked on it sporadically for the next five years, making revisions in the wake of an informal orchestral reading in 1867. The official premiere, at a concert of the Russian Musical Society on 23 December 1868 conducted by his tutor Balakirev, successfully established Borodin as a major force in Russian orchestral music. The score presented here is a digitally-enhanced reprint of the one issued ca. 1946 by the Soviet State Publisher Muzgiz, itself a re-engraving of the score edited by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov which was published by V. Bessel after the composer's death in 1887.
