Baku: Symphony of Sirens

Wow:

In 1922 in the port town of Baku in celebration of the fifth anniversary of the revolution composer, performance instigator and music journalist Arseny Avraamov (1886-1944), inspired by the poetry of Alexei Gastev, has staged his best-known creation – the Symphony of Sirens. This bruitist spectacular used the services of a huge cast of choirs joined by spectators, the foghorns of the entire Caspian flotilla, two batteries of artillery guns, a number of full infantry regiments including a machine-gun division, hydroplanes, and all the factory sirens of Baku. Conductor posted on specially built tower signaled various sound units with colored flags and pistol shots.

While I could find no recordings online, there is apparently this book with CD which you can preview here.  The above image is of Avraamov conducting the performance.

Via: Theremin Center

Revision: noticed the other day that the above CD cover looks a whole lot like the tonewheels I’ve been looking at.  Strange.