Mussorgsky

[PaulR]

I'll check it out, Paul. How have you been doing? Listening to anything new? Made any new musical discoveries?

I'm home now for another week or two.  What I use to listen is back in my apartment in BG, and i don't care for listening to music through headphones unless absolutely necessary, so I haven't been listening much

I've been fine, regardless.  yourself?

[Mirror Image]

I'm home now for another week or two.  What I use to listen is back in my apartment in BG, and i don't care for listening to music through headphones unless absolutely necessary, so I haven't been listening much

I've been fine, regardless.  yourself?

I personally like using headphones for classical music. It allows me to pick up so many nuances, harmonic shadings, rhythmic accents, etc. that would, otherwise, be buried through the stereo, but, I realize, everybody has their own preferences. I've been doing pretty good just enjoying some time off from work. Happy New Year!

[Octave]

I'm interested in getting one or more collections of Mussorgsky's piano music, not just PICTURES (though that of course looms large).  I was thinking of Michel Béroff's EMI disc.  Opinions on that or others would be appreciated. 

I have Richter's famous SOFIA RECITAL recording and possibly a couple others by others, but for the moment I'm not near my wall o' discs and my memory is shot.

I'm also quite excited that the Boris Christoff ICON box includes his recordings of the complete (??) Mussorgsky songs.  I've gotten some tips from this thread for other vocalists that are key for this music, but I cannot wait to spend time with Christoff.

[The new erato]

I'm also quite excited that the Boris Christoff ICON box includes his recordings of the complete (??) Mussorgsky songs.  I've gotten some tips from this thread for other vocalists that are key for this music, but I cannot wait to spend time with Christoff.

They are very good and the main reason I bought this box.  Of course all the rarities from Cui, Rimsky, Borodin (IIRC) also helped. 

[PaulR]

Speaking of this recording:
[asin]B005G4YDTE[/asin]
Does anyone know what ending Gergiev used?  For the rest, he used the Shostakovich...but there is no reprise of the "Dawn over the River Moscow" at the very end which signifies the Shostakovich ending nor is there a reprise of Preobrazhensky March at the very ending which signifies the Rimsky-Korsakov edition. (Which is basically the only difference between them for the ending only).  Did Gergiev just decide to just cut both reprises out?

[Karl Henning]

Anatoli Safiulin singing the Songs and Dances of Death is on the Hyperion Please, someone, buy me sale.

[mc ukrneal]

Anatoli Safiulin singing the Songs and Dances of Death is on the Hyperion Please, someone, buy me sale.

This is also at Berkshire for $6.99. They have a lot of discs from the Hyperion label.

[Karl Henning]

That's where I got mine, back when. Good deal!

[snyprrr]

All you need is Abbado!

[legoru]

 
My favorite music recently - Songs and Dances of Death, Sunless and  The Nursery orchestrated by Edison Denisov. Edison Denisov orchestrated three vocal cycle of Mussorgsky in 1976 - 1983). The starting material of Mussorgsky Denisov treats as a preliminary sketch of the orchestral version. Since Mussorgsky in his music in the future looked much further than his contemporaries, it opens the possibility of a natural convergence of orchestral colors and sounds with the world of the XX century, the use of techniques that correspond to the orchestral palette Debussy or Mahler.

[Angelos_05]

I relation to an orchestral version of the Pictures, I am rooting for the version of Leonidas Leonardi. It was introduced by Walter Damrosch conducting the NY Philharmonic on December 4th 1924.
http://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/eced1ecb-6037-4bdb-ba50-5cebaa810d83/fullview
http://www.lucksmusic.com/catdetailview_symph.asp?CatalogNo=08431






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Other CDs that I would like to recommend.


http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/l/lta00216a.php
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2007/Aug07/Henry_Wood_SRCD216.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2007/Sept07/Wood_SRCD216.htm
http://www.soundstage.com/music/reviews/rev969.htm








https://www.pristineclassical.com/pasc444.html
http://www.audaud.com/lucien-caillet-studio-recordings-1936-1946-works-of-bach-purcell-turina-caillet-mussorgsky-ormandyreinerstokowskifiedler-pristine-audio/
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2015/Sep/Cailliet_arrangements_PASC444.htm






http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2014/Feb14/Mussorgsky_pictures_8573016.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2014/Mar14/Mussorgsky_pictures_NBD0036.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2014/Jan14/Mussorgsky_pictures_8573016.htm
http://www.classicalcdreview.com/MC454.html
http://www.allmusic.com/album/mussorgsky-pictures-at-an-exhibition-songs-and-dances-of-death-the-nursery-mw0002592513









http://www.octavia.co.jp/shop/exton/005768.html
http://www.allmusic.com/album/mussorgsky-stokowski-pictures-at-an-exhibition-mw0002565732
http://www.classicalcdreview.com/kyls.html

Here is this fine recording of Mussorgsky, Debussy and Ravel with the Japan Philharmonic, the Mussorgsky recorded in November 2013, the others in a live concert Dec. 9-10, 2011, all in Suntory Hall. Brilliant performances all, with superb orchestral playing. It seems odd that this Exton issue is a regular CD and not in surround sound—they missed a golden audio opportunity. This is a very expensive disk;excellent, wide-range audio; it should have been multi-channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EJlyXbhnUc

Although Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's solo piano work 'Pictures at an Exhibition' remains top of a very long list of its arrangements, Stokowski's is a strong follow-up and often a second choice amongst many conductors. Here is an excerpt from a recent CD of Stokowski's version splendidly played by the Japan Philharmonic under Kazuki Yamada. Curiously, in 'The Old Castle', the score asks for a cor anglais to play the main solo part but Stokowski, in an apparent nod to Ravel, also suggests a saxophone as an alternative. It is that instrument which Yamada chooses in his performance as heard here.

http://www.calarecords.com/acatalog/info_CACD1030.html
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/June01/Mussorgsky_Pictures.htm






http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2015/Feb/Mussorgsky_pictures_MAR0553.htm
http://www.allmusic.com/album/mussorgsky-pictures-at-an-exhibition-songs-and-dances-of-death-night-on-bare-mountain-mw0002809991
http://www.sa-cd.net/showtitle/10408






http://store.acousticsounds.com/d/62452/Leibowitz_Royal_Philharmonic_Orchestra-The_Power_of_The_Orchestra-Hybrid_Stereo_SACD
http://www.sa-cd.net/showtitle/6107
http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-power-of-the-orchestra-mw0001957370

Audiophiles will welcome the Analogue Productions reissue of the famous RCA stereo LP called The Power of the Orchestra. This features René Leibowitz conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in music of Mussorgsky, the Ravel orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition, and a unique arrangement of A Night on Bare Mountain, recorded in 1962.Collectors will remember the original LP cover which is reproduced on the SACD. Producer Charles Gerhardt and engineer Kenneth Wilkinson had worked with Leibowitz a number of times before, particularly in 1961 when they made their memorable set of Beethoven symphonies, today still one of the best-sounding versions of this music. The Gerhardt/Wilkinson team went all out to make this Mussorgsky disk a sonic spectacular, with some gimmicks, particularly addition of a wind machine and gongs at the climax of Night just before the soft closing passage. Gerhardt told me they decided they didn't want to use the Stokowski ending for Night, and he asked Leibowitz to write "a wild one," which, indeed, he did, and if I recall correctly, Leibowitz did it overnight! At the end of the soft closing passage in the original, we hear the new version: mysterious rumblings in the bass and a Schoenbergesque restatement of the principal theme punctuated by massive gongs. It is quite exciting, indeed. In Pictures, xylophone repeated passages are heard once on each side, to great effect. This is a two-track stereo recording and no attempt has been made to produce "surround" sound—however, the transfer from the analog originals as processed here permits us to hear these exciting performances as never before. It is a premium price issue, but worth it.

http://www.classicalcdreview.com/MC309.html

Points of interest

-There are indications that another version by conductor Fabien Sevitzky (nephew of Sergei Koussevitzky - the person who commissioned Ravel to orchestrate Pictures at an Exhibition) existed once (or still exists?).
Mussorgsky / Fabien Sevitzky : Pictures at an Exhibition, (duration : 24:00 )
Instrumentation : 3 (3rd alt with picc), 2+1, Eb cl, 2+1, 2+1 - 4,4,3,1 - timp, 3perc, bells, cel, glock - hp - pf - str.
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Sevitzky-Fabien.htm


-Another rare orchestration with Slavic flavour is the one carried out by Vaclav Smetacek.
Mussorgsky / Vaclav Smetacek : Bydlo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpcnT-BwJI0

http://www.rozhlas.cz/publishing/classical/_zprava/159438
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A1clav_Smet%C3%A1%C4%8Dek
instrumentation : 2[1/pic, 2/pic] 2[1.2/Eh] 2[1.2/bcl] 2 — 4[F] 4[C] 3 1 — tmp+perc(xyl, cym, bd, small sd, tri, glsp, chimes, tam tam) — str.

One of the composers who set about orchestrating Pictures from an Exhibition was also the conductor Václav Smetáček "in whose life, composing was somewhat of a Cinderella, and when he did embark upon something, it was always from an external impulse only." His instrumentation of Pictures from an Exhibition was composed to be broadcast by the radio station Radiojournal at the outbreak of World War Two, at a time when Ravel was already on the list of forbidden composers.

[vandermolen]

I like the Henry Wood orchestration on Lyrita. Good to hear a different orchestration.

[Angelos_05]

I like the Henry Wood orchestration on Lyrita. Good to hear a different orchestration.

That is an interesting point.
I believe that this thread befits Jason Klein's analysis. It's an eye-opener, especially to those who have a fixation on Ravel's version (I don't mean you vandermolen )

Jason's Klein "Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition: A Comparative Analysis of Several Orchestrations"
http://www.mediafire.com/?eyu8a1sqi2meqya

In the beginning I was fascinated to hear other people's ideas on how to orchestrate this work, and moreover I was quite excited about those who used sumptuous, plush and lavish orchestral sound.
But afterwards I started thinking about who Mussorgsky was and what he was capable of as a symphonist.
Mussorgsky was a rough-hewn and unsophisticated composer. He was by no means an adept orchestral colorist (his good friend Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was a master orchestral colorist who had many editorial liberties on Mussorgsky's works and completed/orchestrated many of them that were left in an unplayable form). People hear the Mussorgsky-Ravel version and think that what they hear is Modest Mussorgsky.
I would dare to say that what they are listening to is rather 30% Mussorgsky and 70% Ravel. The orchestration bears the signature of the Gallic Ravel sound, which means that his orchestration is the celebration of Maurice Ravel as a master orchestrator and as a Frenchman from the renown French school of composers.

A hypothetical orchestration by Modest Mussorgsky himself would certainly bear far greater resemblance to the orchestral realizations of Mikhail Tushmalov, Leo Funtek, Sergei Gorchakov and perhaps Vladimir Ashkenazy rather than to Maurice Ravel, Leopold Stokowski, Leonidas Leonardi, Sir Henry Wood, Lucien Cailliet, and I don't know who else. Therefore, I consider the conscientious orchestral rendering to be that of Sergei Gorchakov and Mikhail Tushmalov (the latter lamentably made many omissions which doomed his orchestral suite to be in a relatively trimmed-curtailed form). Still, I would like to listen to the Leonidas Leonardi version some day to see what kind of version the people of the Bessel Publisher presented as a rejoinder to the successful Ravel version.....





http://www.allmusic.com/album/mussorgsky-pictures-at-an-exhibition-prokofiev-symphonie-classique-mw0001808206
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2013/Feb13/Mussorgsky_Pictures_2564659389.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/06/arts/review-music-philharmonic-repaints-mussorgsky-s-pictures.html

I forget how many orchestral versions of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition there are – I think it's about twenty eight – but apart from the Ravel none of them, except, perhaps, Stokowski's, have become popular with the public. In 1931, nine years after Ravel's version, an authentic version of Mussorgsky's score was published, and this is the one subsequent arrangers have used. Ravel's is an amazing showcase for a virtuoso orchestra but it's not Mussorgsky's Suite, it's far too Frenchified and any awkward corners have been rounded off. Other versions have sought to convey the Russian quality of the music and keep the wild abandon of the original. Sergei Gorchakov's 1954 version is slowly gaining an audience here (Kurt Masur, who has long been a fan of this version, has recorded the piece with the London Philharmonic) and it's easy to see why. It's a thrilling experience, has lots of brilliant orchestration and it is faithful to the original. There's none of the prettiness of Ravel's orchestration and there are many rough edges, as befits the original score. It's certainly a success, and this performance was a fine exposition of the arrangement. I don't see it ever superceding Ravel's version, it's neither pretty enough, nor sufficiently overtly exciting and technicoloured, but  at its centre it has  a real Russian soul.  Nowak brought that out and enjoyed himself in the various moods and emotions on display.

http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2009/Jul-Dec09/rpo2511.htm

A Clinton F. Nieweg chart showing sources and details of arrangements of the Pictures from an Exhibition.
http://www.orchestralibrary.com/Nieweg%20Charts/Pictures%20at%20an%20Exhibition%202016.pdf

http://www.orchestralibrary.com/

[vandermolen]

I have the Stokowski version too, with two 'missing' pictures but I like that version too. I was never that keen on the version by Emerson, Lake and Palmer although the pretentious attribution 'Mussorgsky/Lake' made me laugh, although maybe I am unfair and just a musical snob. 

[Brian]

If anybody else got curious, after reading that excellent series of posts, to hear some of the Leonidas Leonardi version, Leonard Slatkin did two movements from it in one of his mashup performances:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOLpBXmPYks

Here you'll hear two Leonardi excerpts, Henry Wood's "Bydlo", and orchestrations by Lucien Cailliet and Sergei Gorchakov.

Slatkin's CD version on Naxos has quite an eclectic assortment of orchestrators, including one Vladimir Ashkenazy:

[Angelos_05]

Well, the problem is that Leonidas Leonardi's version calls for huge orchestral forces (meaning more money than what a Mussorgsky-Ravel recording would cost) plus the fact that he fell into obscurity and was not in the standard repertoire for Labels to invest and record it (the standard version has been the Mussorgsky-Ravel eversince the 1920s, and moreover  audiences and Mussorgsky lovers didn't even know that an alternative orchestration ever existed for ages. The advent of the internet did justice to that by evening things out a little bit). Even Leonard Slatkin, champion of alternative orchestrations, was previously unaware of the fact that apart from Maurice Ravel's version there were other orchestrators with other ideas. And he admits that he was taken aback when he found out that Kurt Masur was performing the Sergei Gorvchakov version during a concert that he attended.


Leonard Slatkin 1st compendium Suite was the following :
1. Promenade (Lawrence Leonard)
2. Gnomus (Vladimir Ashkenazy)
3. Promenade (Lucien Cailliet)
4. The Old Castle (Sergei Gorchakov)
5. Promenade (Leonidas Leonardi)
6. Tuilleries (Leonidas Leonardi)
7. Bydlo (Henry Wood)
8. Promenade (Lucien Cailliet)
9. Ballet of the chicks (Lucien Cailliet)
10.Goldenberg (Sergei Gorchakov)
11.Promenade (Lucien Cailliet)
12.Limoges (Mikhail Tushmalov)
13.Catacombs (Leopold Stokowski)
14.Con Mortuis (Henry Wood)
15.Baba Yaga (Maurice Ravel)
16.Great Gate (Maurice Ravel)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqD9zB4TjXw

For a Proms concert in London's Royal Albert Hall in 1991, Leonard Slatkin introduced his own edition of Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition.' It featured the various 'Promenades' and 'Pictures' in different arrangements by an assortment of orchestrators. Ravel's version is the best known but other arrangers of Mussorgsky's piano work were Leopold Stokowski, Sir Henry Wood, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Mikhail Tushmalov, Lawrence Leonard, Lucien Cailliet, Sergei Gorchakov and Leonidas Leonardi, all of whom were featured in Slatkin's performance. As an encore, he brought the house down with Sir Henry Wood's version of 'The Great Gate of Kiev.'
The television relay of the concert was preceded by a short documentary which featured Slatkin discussing the work with pianist Joanna MacGregor, as well as contributions from Vladimir Ashkenazy and Lawrence Leonard, two of the arrangers featured in his compendium. The individual cue points in the TV programme are shown below.

0:00:40 Feature Documentary
0:12:30 Slatkin Discussion
0:19:15 Philharmonia Proms Performance
0:55:00 Henry Wood's Great Gate of Kiev Encore

You will see Edward Johnson in there  into the bargain. He was/is an expert at unearthing rare scores and forsaken orchestral transcriptions, and was once the head-doyen of the Leopold Stokowski society (now disbanded).

Mussorgsky`s ``Pictures at an Exhibition`` is so familiar to concertgoers in the Ravel orchestration that it comes as a shock to realize there are at least 19 other symphonic versions of the piano suite. Many of these have been lost to history, probably for good reason. But wouldn`t it be nice, just once, to hear the best of the others, if only to gain a new perspective on a warhorse some of us would prefer never hearing again?

That was the theory behind Leonard Slatkin`s experiment in comparative music appreciation with the Chicago Symphony at Thursday night`s subscription concert in Orchestra Hall. Our guest conductor`s tour of the Hartmann gallery drew on orchestrations by nine musicians, including Ravel.

Chronologically, Slatkin`s sequence begins with Mikhail Tushmalov, a student of Rimsky-Korsakov`s who prepared the first known orchestration of the suite. In that form it entered the CSO repertory in 1920, two years before Serge Koussevitzky commissioned the Ravel version. It ends with Vladimir Ashkenazy, whose scoring dates from 1982. In between are such familiar figures as Leopold Stokowski and Henry Wood, as well as such relatively obscure musicians as Leonidas Leonardi.

There are gains and losses. Lucien Caillet`s light, dancey treatment of the unhatched chicks` ballet is funnier than Ravel`s. Wood`s version of ``Bydlo`` tosses in the distant clanging of bells, a very Russian effect that builds to a massive climax before fading into the distance. And for sheer, eerie power and Technicolored sonic splendor, no ``Catacombs`` can top Stokowski`s.

On the other hand, I found the initial statement of the Promenade, as scored by one Lawrence Leonard, a dreadful piece of Hollywood bombast-Give me Ravel`s dapper ``walking`` trumpet any day. And Soviet composer Sergei Gorchakov`s interchanging of the solo instruments favored by Ravel in ``The Old Castle`` and ``Goldenberg and Schmuyle`` is not so striking an idea as to alter one`s preference for the Ravel. The Mussorgsky-Slatkin ``Pictures`` is a musical crazy-quilt, and inevitably the differences in style are telling.

In any case, I applaud Slatkin for his enterprise and the CSO for being such enthusiastic sports about the whole thing. The crowd seemed to find it a welcome departure from routine.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1990-11-02/news/9004010000_1_leonard-slatkin-ravel-sergei-gorchakov

Brian, I have a feeling that the Leonard Slatkin CD on Naxos has something wrong with it: a flat/dull audio engineering.
Have a go at this one and you'll come to understand what I am talking about.  It features Leonard Slatkin's 2nd compendium suite (as does the Naxos release you posted)



http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Aug05/Pictures_pines_2564619542.htm

MOUSSORGSKY: Pictures at an Exhibition; RESPIGHI: Pines of Rome BBC Symphony & Chorus/ Leonard Slatkin; BBC Wales/ Tadaaki Otaka-Warner 61954-58 min

Some years ago, Leonard Slatkin took up the Gorchakov arrangement of Moussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition because it is more Slavic than the standard Ravel orchestration, and then he was stimulated to check out other orchestrations. The resulting suite, combining arrangements by Lawrence Leonard, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Lucien Cailliet, Sergei Gorchakov, Leonidas Leonardi, Sir Henry Wood, Michail Tushmalov, Leopold Stokowski, and closing out with Ravel's 'Baba Yaga' and 'Great Gate of Kiev', Slatkin played often to great acclaim. Although he never recorded it commercially, it was included in the six-disc St Louis set celebrating Slatkin's 17-year run with the orchestra, reviewed by Tom Godell (Jan/Feb 1996, p 203).

Since then he has had second thoughts on the subject, stimulated in no small part by Edward Johnson, doyen of the Leopold Stokowski Society, who urged Slatkin to take a look at the wildly over-the-top 'Great Gate' by the Australian composer and arranger Douglas Gamley. It calls for organ and men's chorus, along with a huge consort of brass and bells. No sooner did Johnson send a copy of it to Slatkin--it was recorded by Charles Gerhardt early on for Reader's Digest-- then Slatkin Emailed him back, "Love the Gamley ... Find the score!" From such acorns do mighty oaks grow.

Slatkin has retained only one section from the earlier montage, Cailliet's 'Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks'. A rundown follows, including comparisons with other recordings where possible:

Promenade 1 (Ellison). The name may sound Welsh, but Ellison is an American, a structural engineer by trade, born in 1957 and currently violinist in the Fort Worth Orchestra. In his transcription each section is styled after a different composer, ranging from Scheherazade and Die Meistersinger to the 1812 (though his orchestration does not include a part for cannon...!) In the opening 'Promenade' he emulates Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, introducing the choirs one by one beginning with the percussion--the familiar theme is first heard in the tubular bells. From here he works his way up to full orchestra and even remembers to pay homage to Purcell's Abdelazar--listen for the nattering bassoon beginning at 0:40--"not the same phrase used by Britten" says annotator David Nice, though the part at 0:44 certainly does sound familiar! This seems to me an interesting if not entirely convincing effect; I'd like to hear what he does with the other pictures!

Gnomus (Gorchakov). Here at least we're on familiar ground, as Gorchakov's darkly Slavic Pictures has been recorded a couple of times, first by Kurt Masur (Teldec; May/June 1992) and later by Karl Anton Rickenbacher (RCA; July/Aug 2002), the latter unfortunately padded out with commentary by Peter Ustinov. Gorchakov makes of Hartmann's gnome a far more sinister figure than Ravel, and Slatkin's broad tempos only heighten the awkward movement and malevolent character of the little fellow. But the bass line comes across better with Masur--even more so the deep-throated gong-and actually I like Rickenbacher best of all once you program out Ustinov's insufferable ramblings. (Or we could have Slatkin record the whole thing.)

Promenade 2 (Goehr). Goehr of course is far better known as a conductor; but he also compiled a Pictures that adds a vibraphone to the usual mix of percussion (you won't hear it here). This he put together for use by smaller orchestras, and the introspective mood of strings, winds, and muted brass, beginning with solo viola, makes for a calming influence after the fearsome gnome's antics.

The Old Castle (Naoumoff). I dismissed the Naoumoff as a turgid mess when Alcar brought it out a few years back (July/Aug 2002). It is ostensibly a sort of piano concerto, but the orchestra has all the good tunes, with the piano pretty much relegated to commentary. Naoumoff eschews Ravel's familiar tenor sax in favor of alto flute for the amorous bard; but here the piano is so far forward you can hardly hear the flute. Worse, it sounds like a cocktail lounge piano. You might want to skip this track.

Promenade 3 & Tuileries (Van Keulen). No, I never heard of him either, but this wind band arrangement by the bass clarinetist Van Keulen--born in 1943, same as me--shows what can be done without strings or percussion, stark Russian brooding in the 'Promenade' contrasting effectively with the Gallic delicacy of the Tuileries gardens and children at play. Perhaps some of our more enterprising wind ensembles might look into this one.

Bydlo (Ashkenazy). The Russian-born Ashkenazy wanted to return the Pictures to its Slavic roots and also correct the numerous mistakes that cropped up in the Rimsky edition and were dutifully recreated by Ravel. In 'Bydlo' Moussorgsky intended to have the Polish oxcart fortissimo from the start. I approve of Ravel having it slowly approach, wheel past, and fade into the distance, but Ashkenazy will have none of it, and he makes that clear right off the bat with four French horns blaring away.
.........................................................




*2nd Sep 2004*
Ravel has more or less cornered the market when it comes to the orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. It has become a classic.
But there are well over two dozen other versions and, last night, Leonard Slatkin, celebrating his 60th birthday, guided the BBC Symphony Orchestra through a collage of assorted arrangements.

Before the interval, he conducted excerpts from Britten's The Prince of the Pagodas that caught the ballet's sensuousness, stealth and sparkle, and Michael Collins was the agile soloist in John Corigliano's cleverly written Clarinet Concerto, a virtuoso piece that seemed to demand an awful lot of effort for such innocuous results.

However, the Mussorgsky sequence was worth doing as a jeu d'esprit. There are 10 pictures and several linking "promenades" in the original piano suite – 15 items in all, each played here in an arrangement by a different composer.
It is odd that Rimsky-Korsakov never had a go at it: he was quick enough to apply his orchestral brush to other Mussorgsky scores when he thought them too primitive, and Pictures might be thought to have been an irresistible temptation.
But, in this instance, he passed the buck to Mikhail Tushmalov, who, by the 1880s, had already produced the first orchestral elaboration. One of the ones that followed, in 1915, was by none other than the founder of the Proms, Sir Henry Wood. And if his great lumbering orchestration of "Two Polish Jews, One Rich, One Poor" is anything to go by, it is hardly surprising that he suppressed his version after hearing the Ravel.

Even when Ravel's score had taken a hold, others still felt free to have their say, including that uninhibited arch-transcriber Leopold Stokowski, whose account of "The Hut on Fowl's Legs" could certainly not be accused of good taste. Indeed, with the exception of the chirpy "Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks" by Lucien Cailliet, none of the orchestrations here had Ravel's finesse.

And after the excesses of Douglas Gamley's "Great Gate of Kiev" (with organ and chorus), nobody could feel guilty about preferring the stark realities of Mussorgsky's original.

[Spineur]

Speaking of this recording:
[asin]B005G4YDTE[/asin]
Does anyone know what ending Gergiev used?  For the rest, he used the Shostakovich...but there is no reprise of the "Dawn over the River Moscow" at the very end which signifies the Shostakovich ending nor is there a reprise of Preobrazhensky March at the very ending which signifies the Rimsky-Korsakov edition. (Which is basically the only difference between them for the ending only).  Did Gergiev just decide to just cut both reprises out?

I recorded a broadcast of this production on french TV.  As said it uses the Shostakovich orchestration, with its own ending.  It is 25 tminutes longer than the  version used by Abbado in its Vienna production
[asin]B000059H8A[/asin]
which uses the Stravinsky ending.
Musically, Abbado version is great, but the image quality leaves somewhat to be desired compared to the HD Gergiev version from the Marinsky theater.

[Mister Sharpe]

Do you agree or disagree? :  Deborah Mawer in her 2000 Cambridge Companion to Musorgsky writes that his Pictures at an Exhibition would possibly not have gained its place in the musical canon, even as a piano work, had it not been for Ravel's transcription."  Now "possibly" is a very loose word - nearly anything is possible - but I rather think Exhibition is more than sufficiently strong to have secured its own spot sans Ravel (though the latter did not by any means inhibit appreciation of the original, judging by the talented pianists who have performed it.) 

[Todd]

Do you agree or disagree? :  Deborah Mawer in her 2000 Cambridge Companion to Musorgsky writes that his Pictures at an Exhibition would possibly not have gained its place in the musical canon, even as a piano work, had it not been for Ravel's transcription."

Agree.  Which is fortunate, because the original is orders of magnitude better than the orchestration.  What a pity it would have been had it faded into oblivion.

[kishnevi]

Agree.  Consider this factoid: I was forty years old or more before I heard the piano version, although I have known the Ravel version since I was a kid.