Classical

Modest Mussorgsky - St. Johns Night on the Bare Mountain, Khovanshchina, ... (1997)

2010-05-05T19:59:44Z

Modest Mussorgsky - St. Johns Night on the Bare Mountain, Khovanshchina, ... (1997)


1 - St. Johns Night on the Bare Mountain
2 - Khovanshchina, Prelude
3 - Khovanshchina, Aria of Shaklovity
4 - Khovanshchina, The Departure of Prince Golizyn	play
5 - Khovanshchina, Aria of Maria
6 - Khovanshchina, Dance of the Persian Slave Girls
7 - Scherzo in B-flat Major					play
8 - Intermezzo Symphonique in modo classico
9 - Festive March from ‘Mlada’

Anatoli Kotcherga - Bass-Baritone
Mariana Tarasova - Mezzo-Soprano
Rundkunkchor Berlin
Südtiroler Kinderchor
Berliner Philharmoniker
Claudio Abbado – Conductor

The cd is unique for including Mussorgsky's rarely-performed independent orchestral pieces: Intermezzo in modo classico, The Capture of Kars and the Scherzo. The conductor, Claudio Abbado, takes advantage of the sensitive modern digital sound to produce a record full of inspiration. The Berliner Philharmoniker responds to him terrifically. Kotcherga, older than he was is Abbado's dvd of Khovanshchina, sings Shaklovity's aria like a Dosifey or a Boris, and his Chernobog is thrilling. Tarasova has a real depth of tone which great Marfas such as Semtschuk and Cossotto lacked. She is described as a mezzo but both here and in Boris Godunov (where she played the innkeeper) she sounds like a contralto. The choir here sings with better diction than in Abbado's Khovanshchina dvd. The only problem is the packing: There's no mention of who orchestrated the excerpts from Khovanshchina. (Shostakovich, I guess) On the whole, this is a perfect example of Mussorgsky's art (and Abbado's). ---amazon.com

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Modest Mussorgsky - The Nursery (1956)

2010-03-04T09:56:43Z

Modest Mussorgsky - The Nursery (1956)


1. S Nianei  (With Nanny)
2. V Uglu (In the Corner)
3. Zhuk  (The Beetle)
4. S Kukloi  (With the Doll)
5. Na Son Griaduschii (At Bedtime)
6. Kot Matros (Matros the Cat)
7. Poehal Na Palochke (Riding on a Hobby-Horse)

Nina Dorliac – soprano
Sviatoslav Richter - piano

This is an immensely sophisticated and masterful song cycle. Mussorgsky was one of the first composers to fashion music from speech patterns, and in least one of the songs in this collection, "The Nanny," that technique is in evidence. He first began to develop this method with the songs "Darling Savishna," "You Drunken Sot," and "The Seminarist," all from 1866. But what Mussorgsky was striving for in "The Nanny" goes beyond mere reproduction of speech sounds: he attempts to express musically the feelings and ideas of the child.

The composer used his own texts in this cycle and the subject matter, of course, deals with the world of children, as the titles of the seven songs suggest: 1) "With Nanny," 2) "In the Corner," 3) "The Beetle," 4) "With the Doll," 5) "At Bedtime," 6) "Riding on a Hobby-Horse," and 7) "Matros the Cat" (also translated as "Sailor the Cat"). Yet, the music is not for children; it is formally, thematically, and harmonically as advanced as almost anything in its genre from that era. In certain ways, these songs are a vocal parallel to Schumann's keyboard collection Kinderszenen (Scenes of Childhood) (1838), which also represents an adult view of a children's world. But Mussorgsky's effort here was even more innovative and radical in its time than Schumann's work.

As suggested above, the first song in the cycle, "The Nanny," is the most iconoclastic. It was written just before Mussorgsky embarked on his operatic masterpiece Boris Godunov. In "The Nanny," the composer shatters all convention in the realm of song as he depicts an anxious, talkative child in music that pays little heed to thematic, harmonic, and rhythmic traditions. He makes the listener feel the text in vivid, lifelike sounds. In one passage the nervous child intones: "Nanny dear! Surely the reason the bogeyman ate the children is because they were bad to their old nanny, and they didn't listen to their daddy and mommy...." The music is powerful and touching throughout, the words realistic and innocent, the effect astonishing. All this Mussorgsky achieves, and yet the song is the shortest in the collection, typically taking less than two minutes in a performance.

While most of the other items in the set are nearly as effective, they are not quite as uncompromising and are more lyrically inclined. No. 4, "With the Doll," is an attractive lullaby, but with the child acting the role of the Nanny to the "Dolly." The fifth, "At Bedtime," is a prayer of sorts, with the child delightfully rattling off names of aunts and uncles for God to watch over. While humor is sprinkled throughout most of the songs, two in particular that divulge this trait are No. 2, "In the Corner," in which the child pleads innocent to accusations of mischief to his Nanny, then gradually turns bold with her diminishing anger, and No. 6, "Riding on a Hobby-Horse," in which the child animatedly pretends to be riding a toy horse. Nos. 3 ("The Beetle") and 7 ("Matros the Cat") divulge an agitation in the music to accompany the child's adventures with an insect and a pet cat, respectively.

Though less known than Mussorgsky's operas and not often performed in the West due to the language barrier, this must be regarded as among the most important song cycles from the later nineteenth century. ---Robert Cummings, Rovi

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Modest Mussorgsky – Pictures at an Exhibition (Askenazy) [1990]

2009-10-24T21:46:13Z

Modest Mussorgsky – Pictures at an Exhibition (Askenazy) [1990]


1. Pictures at an Exhibition – for Piano – Promenade – Gnomus 4:06
2. Pictures at an Exhibition – for Piano – Promenade – The Old Castle 5:10
3. Pictures at an Exhibition – for Piano – Promenade – The Tuileries – Bydlo 3:48
4. Pictures at an Exhibition – for Piano – Promenade – Ballet of Unhatched chicks – 2 Polish Jews 4:11
5. Pictures at an Exhibition – for Piano – The Market Place at Limoges – The Catacombs 6:36
6. Pictures at an Exhibition – for Piano – The Hut on Fowls Legs – The Great Gate of Kiev 8:28

Vladimir Ashkenazy - piano

7. Pictures at an Exhibition – Orchestrated by Vladimir Ashkenazy – Promenade – Gnomus 4:02
8. Pictures at an Exhibition – Orchestrated by Vladimir Ashkenazy – Promenade – The old castle 5:24
9. Pictures at an Exhibition – Orchestrated by Vladimir Ashkenazy – Promenade – Tuileries – Bydlo 3:54
10. Pictures at an Exhibition – Orchestrated by Vladimir Ashkenazy – Promenade – Ballet of the unhatched chicks – 2 Polish Jews 4:33
11. Pictures at an Exhibition – Orchestrated by Vladimir Ashkenazy – Promenade – The Market Place at Limoges 7:03
12. Pictures at an Exhibition – Orchestrated by Vladimir Ashkenazy – The Hut on Fowls Legs – The Great Gate of Kiev 9:09

Philharmonia Orchestra
Vladimir Ashkenazy – conductor

While one honors Vladimir Ashkenazy for his many outstanding recordings as both a pianist and a conductor, one cannot honor his 1983 recording of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Coupling a performance of the original piano version of the work with a performance of his own orchestration played here by the Philharmonia Orchestra, this disc might have been entertaining, even brilliant except for two things. First, Ashkenazy's playing in the piano version is badly compromised by his inability to nail the notes in the most difficult passages. Ashkenazy turns in fine performances of the slower and more lyrical movements -- his Il vecchio castello is very lovely and quite soulful -- but deeply flawed performances of the faster and more virtuosic movements -- his Baba Yaga and The Great Gates of Kiev are full of dropped notes and smudged passages. Second, Ashkenazy's orchestration, while technically accomplished, is badly compromised by his inability to say anything interesting about Mussorgsky's often orchestrated suite. His brass section leads, his string section sings, his wind section adds color, and his percussion section adds weight, but unlike Ravel's wildly imaginative orchestration, Ashkenazy's orchestration reveals nothing about the music that we didn't already know. And as lovely and soulful as his piano playing could be, Ashkenazy's orchestral writing is neither one nor the other, but rather merely pro forma. It should be added that Decca's early digital piano sound is harsh and clangorous and that the Philharmonia's playing seems under rehearsed and under enthusiastic, but given the merely mediocre quality of Ashkenazy's playing and orchestration, even the most stupendous sound and spectacular orchestral execution would not have improved the performances. ---James Leonard, Rovi

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Modest Musssorgsky - The Sorochinsky Fair (Сорочинская ярмарка)[1983]

2014-03-01T17:14:12Z

Modest Musssorgsky - The Sorochinsky Fair (Сорочинская ярмарка)[1983]


1. Act I – 1. Fair
2. Act I – 2. Oi Chumak, Oi Cherevik
3. Act II
4. Act III – Scene 1
5. Act III – Scene 2

Cast:
Cherevik - Gennadiy Troytsky
Khivrya - Antonina Kleshchova
Parasya - Lyudmila Belobragina
Gritsko - Aleksey Usmanov
Afanasiy Ivanovich - Vyacheslav Voynarovsky
Gypsy - V. Temisjew
Crony - Oleg Klenov

Stanislavsky Theater Orchestra and Chorus
Vladimir Esipov – conductor

The work's 'third version', the Dream Vision of the Peasant Lad (Russian: Сонное видение паробка, Sonnoye videniye parobka), came into existence eight years later when the composer revived and revised the second version (see Night on Mount Triglav above) to function as a 'dream intermezzo' in his opera Sorochintsï Fair (1874–1880), a work which was still incomplete at the time of his death in 1881. Mussorgsky originally chose the end of Act I of the opera as the location for his choral intermezzo. It is now generally performed in the Shebalin version (1930) of the opera, where it is more logically relocated to Act III, just after the peasant lad's dumka. The theme of the dumka also serves as one of the main themes of the new quiet ending in this version (which also finds its way into the Rimsky-Korsakov edition), thus forming a musical frame to the intermezzo.

The Dream Vision of the Peasant Lad (1880) was first performed as part of Shebalin's performing edition of Sorochintsï Fair, which premiered in 1931 in Leningrad, at the Maly Theater, conducted by Samuil Samosud.

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Mussorgsky - Boris Godunov (Rostropovich) [2011]

2011-10-01T10:58:55Z

Mussorgsky - Boris Godunov (Rostropovich) [2011]

Disc: 1
1. Boris Godounov: Introduction orchestrale: Scene - Eh bien, qu'avez-vous?
2. Boris Godounov: A quis nous abandonnes-tu ?
3. Boris Godounov: Fideles croyants, notre boiar reste inexorable
4. Boris Godounov: Tu as entendu les hommes?
5. Boris Godounov: Scene du Couronnement, Coronation Scene
6. Boris Godounov: Mon ame est en peine
7. Boris Godounov: Encore un dernier recit
8. Boris Godounov: O Dieu de force, Dieu de Justice
9. Boris Godounov: Tu as ecrit toute la nuit
10. Boris Godounov: Oh, je me souviens - Ouglich
11. Boris Godounov: On sonne les matines - Boris, tout tremble devant toi
12. Boris Godounov: J'ai pris un caneton gris
13. Boris Godounov: Peuple chretien, bonnes gens aimes de Dieu
14. Boris Godounov: Dans la bonne ville de Kazan
15. Boris Godounov: Pour moi!
16. Boris Godounov: Qui etes-vous? - D'humbles pelerins, de saints moines
17. Boris Godounov: Que faites-vous, maudits coquins - Fuite de Grigori

Disc: 2
1. Boris Godounov: Ou est mon fiance?
2. Boris Godounov: Oh, c'est assez, Princesse - Chanson du Moustique, Mosquito Song
3. Boris Godounov: Ah, Nounou, en voila un conte, Jeu de la Main chaude, The Hand-Clapping Game
4. Boris Godounov: Qu'y a-t-il?
5. Boris Godounov: Comme c'est bien, mon fils!
6. Boris Godounov: Aie, chut! - Qu'y a-t-il donc?
7. Boris Godounov: A cause de notre Perroquet
8. Boris Godounov: Mon fils, mon cher enfant!
9. Boris Godounov: Tsarevitch, obeis!
10. Boris Godounov: Tu ne me crois donc pas?
11. Boris Godounov: Assez, ah, je suffoque!
12. Boris Godounov: Au bord de la Vistule bleue
13. Boris Godounov: Cela suffit!
14. Boris Godounov: Je n'ai pas besoin de toi aujourd'hui, Rouzia
15. Boris Godounov: Ah! Mon Dieu! Cest vous, mon Pere!
16. Boris Godounov: A minuit, dans le jardin
17. Boris Godounov: Prends-garde, Tsarevitch - La Polonnaise - Nous aurons bientot conquis la Moscovie

Disc: 3
1. Boris Godounov: Elle! Marina!
2. Boris Godounov: Eh bien, la messe est-elle finie?
3. Boris Godounov: Trrr, trrr, trrr
4. Boris Godounov: Aaah! Boris! Ils ont offense L'Innocent!
5. Boris Godounov: Nobles Boiars!
6. Boris Godounov: Eh bien, passons au vote
7. Boris Godounov: Que dites-vous la, Boiars!
8. Boris Godounov: Arriere, arriere
9. Boris Godounov: Auguste Souverain - Mon recit sera simple et bref
10. Boris Godounov: J'etouffe
11. Boris Godounov: Pleurez, bonnes gens
12. Boris Godounov: Amene-le par ici
13. Boris Godounov: Trrr...le bonnet de fer
14. Boris Godounov: Le ciel et la lune se sont eteints
15. Boris Godounov: Hardi! notre male temerite
16. Boris Godounov: Domine, salvum fac regem
17. Boris Godounov: Qui le Malin nous envoie-t-il encore

Ruggero Raimondi - baritone
Vyacheslav Polozov - tenor
Paul Plishka - bass
Galina Vishnevskaya - soprano
Nikita Strojev - bass
Romuald Tesarowicz - bass
Catherine Dubosc - soprano
Nicolai Gedda – tenor
Thomas Booth – tenor
Richard Cowan – baritone
Matthew Adam Fish – boy soprano
Lajos Miller – baritone
Michel Pastor – tenor
Mira Zakai - contralto

The Chevy Chase Elementary School Chorus
The Choral Arts Society of Washington
The Oratorio Society of Washington
National Symphony Orchestra

Mstislav Rostropovich – conductor

The idea to re-cast Alexander Pushkin's verse play Boris Godunov as an opera was suggested to Modest Mussorgsky by history professor Vladimir Nikolsky during a visit to Ludmila Shestakova's home in St. Petersburg. Shestakova sent Mussorgsky a copy of the play, which he'd adapt by the fall of 1868. The first version of Boris Godunov was composed between October 1868 and July 1869, with the orchestration done by December. Mussorgsky submitted the score of Boris to the Imperial Directorate of Theaters, which in February 1871 rejected the work. The Directorate's grounds for dismissing Boris Godunov had little to do with the revolutionary style of the opera; rather it was the lack of a central female character that was their primary concern. The Directorate recognized Mussorgsky's talent, and offered to reconsider provided an additional scene was added. Mussorgsky took this news with encouragement, and launched into a major overhaul of the opera, reaching far beyond what was required. He trimmed scenes, such as the one in Pimen's cell, and added others, including the scene in the Kromy forest, added dances, and added the role of Marina Mnishek. This version of the opera was accepted after a trial run of three scenes at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg in December 1873. Boris Godunov premiered under Nápravnik at the Mariinsky in January 1874.

Boris Godunov was an unqualified success with the Russian public from the first. It was revived five times by 1882 for a total of 22 performances, unheard of for a native Russian opera. Boris Godunov has gone on to become the most popular of all Russian operas. Internationally, the version made by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov earned this popularity through a luxuriant re-scoring of Mussorgsky's deliberately gritty orchestral textures. Hardly had the newer version begun to play the capitals of Europe before the call went out among critics to revive Mussorgsky's "original version." The problem is that there are two "original" versions that are distinctly different from one another. Starting in the 1970s, various combinations of the two became the standard for Boris, based on David Lloyd-Jones' 1975 critical edition that prints both operas side-by-side. Any combination of the 1869 and 1872 versions of Boris Godunov makes a muddle of the scenario; the 1869 version is tightly constructed in four "parts," totaling just seven scenes. It is bleak in tone and resembles Bertolt Brecht's alienist theater of the 1920s more than it does nineteenth-century opera. Boris is made more of an obvious villain in the first version than in the revision, which leaves that question open-ended. The 1872 version is also more expansive, laid out in four acts and a prologue, scenes run longer, and the edge of 1869 is softened somewhat. It wasn't until 1998 that a recording of the two versions of Boris were issued together within a single unit, and in practice the general consensus has become that one or the other Boris Godunov should be chosen when the "original" Mussorgsky score is presented. ---Uncle Dave Lewis, Rovi

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Mussorgsky - Complete Songs (1989)

2012-10-03T16:40:49Z

Mussorgsky - Complete Songs (1989)

CD1
	1	Tell Me, Star, Where Art Thou?			
	2	Joyous Hour			
	3	Tell my why, O Maid			
	4	leaves were sadly rustling			
	5	I am Rich in Palaces			
	6	For You, the Words of Love			
	7	King Saul			
	8	Song of the Old Man			
	9	We Parted Proudly			
	10	Wind are Howling			
	11	Night			
	12	Calistratus			
	13	Balearic Song			
	14	Prayer			
	15	Cast-off Woman			
	16	Sleep, Son of Peasants			
	17	Mignonne

CD2
	1	Desire			
	2	Gopak			
	3	Savishna			
	4	Seminarist			
	5	Hebrew song			
	6	Magpie			
	7	Seeking Mushrooms			
	8	Piruchka (The Feast)			
	9	Street-Urchin			
	10	he-goat			
	11	By the River Don			
	12	Classic			
	13	Orphan			
	14	Children's Song			
	15	With Nursey			
	16	In the Corner			
	17	Beetle			
	18	With the Doll			
	19	Evening Prayer			
	20	Hobby-Horse			
	21	Cat 'Sailor'			
	22	Eriomushka's Cradle Song			
	23	Puppet-show			
	24	Evening Song			
	25	Forsaken One

CD3
1. Within Four Walls
2. Thine Eyes in the Crowd Ne'er Perceived Me
3. The Useless Day is Over
4. Ennui
5. Elegy
6. On the River
7. Trepak - Orch National de la Radiodiffusion Francaise/Georges Tzipine
8. Cradle Song - Orch National de la Radiodiffusion Francaise/Georges Tzipine
9. Serenade - Orch National de la Radiodiffusion Francaise/Georges Tzipine
10. The Warrior-Captain - Orch National de la Radiodiffusion Francaise/Georges Tzipine
11. Cruel Death
12. The Misunderstood One
13. Misfortune
14. The Spirit of Heaven
15. What Fellow is Fitted for Weaving or Spinning?
16. Trouble
17. A Vision
18. Master Haughty
19. The Wanderer
20. On the Dnieper
21. Song of Mephistopheles - Orch National de la Radiodiffusion Francaise/Georges Tzipine

Boris Christoff - Bass (Vocal)
ORTF National Orchestra
George Tzipine – conductor

Boris Christoff's set of the complete songs of Mussorgsky is one of the greatest monuments to a single composer's greatest body of works, one of the greatest monuments to the art of singing, and one of the greatest monuments to one of the great singers of the twentieth century. The only really comparable achievement is Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's corpus of recordings of the songs of Schubert. And if Fischer-Dieskau's achievement is larger in scope, it is neither more profound nor more musical than Christoff's. Mussorgsky's songs are as central to his greatness as a composer as Schubert's were to his. In them, he went as deep into humanity and into his art as Schubert did in his songs. Not only the great cycles, The Songs and Dances of Death, Sunless, and The Nursery, but also many of the individual songs, are as great as any ever composed. The range is as wide, the aim is as high, and the level of achievement is almost always as great in the best moments of Boris Godunov, and Christoff is there for every moment. All three of his cycles are the best ever made, and every single one of the songs is sung with passionate intelligence and dedicated soulfulness. Songs like "Cruel Death" and "The Puppet Show" have been equaled but never surpassed. And his "Mephistopheles' Song of the Flea" is frighteningly funny. One could argue with some of the accompanists or complain of some of the orchestral arrangements by other composers, but anyone who loves Mussorgsky or the art of singing should by all means get this recording. ---James Leonard, Rovi

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Mussorgsky - Khovanshchina (1973)

2011-06-22T08:50:14Z

Mussorgsky - Khovanshchina (1973)

1. CD1
- Prologue
- Act I
- Act II

2. CD2
- Act II (Cont’d)
- Act III

3. CD3
- Act IV
- Act V

Ivan Khovansky - Nicolai Ghiaurov
Andrey Khovansky - Veriano Luchetti
Vasily Golitsyn - Ludovic Spiess
Shaklovity - Siegmund Nimsgern
Dosifey - Cesare Siepi
Marfa - Fiorenza Cossotto
Susanna - Elena Souliotis
Scribe - Franz Handlos
Emma - Mietta Sighele
Kuzka - Angelo Marchiandi
Streshniev - Claudio Strudthoff
Pastor - Giovanni Sciarpeletti
Varsonofiev - Ubaldo Carosi
Strelets I - Teodoro Rovetta
Strelets II - Carlo Del Bosco

RAI Roma Orchestra and Chorus
Bogo Leskovich – conductor

Khovanshchina (The Khovansky Affair) was Modest Mussorgsky's final opera, left unfinished at the time of this death in March of 1881. Inconsistencies among the variety of completed editions makes pinning down its essential nature difficult. Ironically, this dramatic and musical malleability is perhaps what best suits Khovanshchina to its subject matter, namely the ascension of Tsar Peter I ("The Great"). Depending on one's perspective, the changes he wrought were either the most beneficial or most tragic in Russia's history, and, depending on which version of Khovanshchina one encounters in performance, one either leaves with a sense of emerging optimism or a sense of desperate resignation.

Khovanshchina takes its name from the two Khovansky princes, Ivan and Andrey, whose Strel'tsï musketeers rose up against the new Tsar in 1689. However, the adoption of their family name for the work's title is potentially misleading; while the drama is related through the eyes of the three principle groups that opposed Peter's reign (the Khovanskys, the schismatics ["Old Believers"], and the family of Peter's older brother), the Tsar himself and his historical legacy are clearly the focus of the opera. Had censorship not explicitly proscribed the depiction of Russian royalty on stage, Khovanshchina would have taken a very different shape, and most likely a different name.

Vladimir Vasil'yevich Stasov compiled the libretto from various historical documents, and the resulting text remains truthful, in the broad sense, to history. However, there is no attempt to recreate the specific events therein; rather, the various figures and events are used as raw material for the invention of appropriately operatic scenes. The most conspicuous liberty was the character of Marfa, who is a member of the schismatic sect, the lover of Andrey Khovansky, and a fortune teller with influence over Ivan's chief agent, Prince Golitsïn. Completely a work of fiction, she is the only character in the opera who has ties to all three factions, and as such she takes on a unique dramatic importance. Stasov most likely invented her to compensate for his inability to depict the Tsar himself -- the work's only true common thread -- on stage.

Mussorgsky conceived of Khovanshchina in six scenes, the last two of which only survive as sketches; they form matched pairs, so that each of the three opposition factions receives two -- one in which they are seen plotting against Peter, and one in which they meet their demise. For its 1886 premiere, Rimsky-Korsakov completed and orchestrated the work, and cast it into the five-act form that has become standard; this edition was subsequently used for its 1911 revival and Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky's own 1913 revision. In his completion, Rimsky-Korsakov recycled some of the more uplifting passages from the orchestral prelude for use in the final scene, in which the "Old Believers" -- those who advocated the return to a church-based government -- leave to commit ritual suicide in protest of Peter's ascension. By doing this, Rimsky-Korsakov gave the ending a philosophical "shot in the arm" by suggesting that, despite the upheaval that accompanied Peter's reign, the resulting "modern era" of Russian society was worth the price. There is evidence from Mussorgsky's correspondence that he never intended this, but rather wanted the disenfranchised believers' sacrifice to speak to a greater sense of national loss. In 1952, Dmitri Shostakovich fashioned an entirely new version of the score for use in a film version. This new score was published in 1963, and has been used for a number of modern performances; it is arguably more representative of Mussorgsky's dramatic intentions. ---Allen Schrott, Rovi

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Mussorgsky - Missa Sancti Nicolai • Moniuszko - Litania Ostrabramska (1997)

2013-01-19T17:08:10Z

Mussorgsky - Missa Sancti Nicolai • Moniuszko - Litania Ostrabramska (1997)

Mussorgsky – Messe de Saint Nicolas
1. Kyrie
2. Gloria
3. Credo
4. Sanctus, Benedictus
5. Agnus Dei

Gisele Hamelin – soprano
Maurice Bourbon – baritone

Chorale Franco-Allemande de Paris
Bernard Lallement – director

Chorale Inter-Universitaire Sainte-Anne de Varsovie
Janusz Dabrowski - direction

Moniuszko – Litanie a la Vierge d’Ostra Brama
6. Kyrie
7. Sancta maria
8. Salus infirmorum
9. Agnus Dei
10. Christe audi nos

Jolanta Janucik – soprano
Joanna Sochon – alto
Pawel Kowalczuk – tenor
Marcin Nowotny – baritone

Chorale Inter-Universitaire Sainte-Anne de Varsovie
Orchestre Symphonique de Broceliande
Jacques Wojciechowski – director

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Mussorgsky – Sunless Songs and Dances of Death (Rozhdestvensky) [1989]

2016-12-04T16:30:41Z

Mussorgsky – Sunless Songs and Dances of Death (Rozhdestvensky) [1989]

Songs And Dances Of Death (Песни И Пляски Смерти)
1. Lullaby (Колыбельная) 	4:35
2. Serenade (Серенада) 	3:55
3. Trepak (Трепак) 	3:27
4. Field-Marshal (Полководец)	 	5:03

Sunless (Без Солнца) 	(13:57)
5. Within Four Walls (В Четырех Стенах)	
6. In The Throng (Меня Ты В Толпе Не Узнала) 	
7. The Idle Noisy Day Is Over (Окончен Праздный Шумный День) 	
8. Boredom (Скучай)
9. Elegy (Элегия) 	
10. Over The River (Над Рекой)

Evgeni Nesterenko - bas
The USSR Ministry Of Culture Orchestra
Gennadi Rozhdestvensky – conductor

The most numerous works that Mussorgsky did write down are his songs for voice and piano. In this genre Mussorgsky excelled and he brought a new fusion of the Russian language and music. Mussorgsky was a cultured, well-read man and as such could be very selective in the texts he set to music. The poet that he used for his two song cycles Songs And Dances Of Death and Sunless was his distant relative Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov. The two impoverished men shared a small apartment together for about two years until Kutuzov married.

Sunless (also translated as Without Sun) was composed in 1874 at a low time in Mussorgsky's life. His opera Boris Gudonov had finally had its premiere early in 1874 after two other versions had been rejected. The opera was a success with the public but the critics were very hostile to the work. This, along with other setbacks and frustrations as well as his hatred of the boredom of his bureaucratic job, brought on depression that was made worse by excessive drinking. There are six songs in the cycle that reflect Mussorgsky's mood during this time.

Mussorgsky wrote the song cycle Songs And Dances Of Death in 1875-1877 to poems by Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov who was distantly related to Mussorgsky. That Mussorgsky was quite taken with the poet and his works is expressed in a letter:

After Pushkin and Lermontov I have not encountered what I have in Kutuzov... Sincerity leaps from almost everything in Kutuzov, almost everywhere you scent the freshness of a fine warm morning, together with a matchless inborn technique... And how he is drawn to the people, history!

Obviously Mussorgsky was commenting on the power of Kutuzov's poetry to evoke images and feelings, in this particular case the images and feelings concerning death.

The four songs all deal with the figure of death and how death claims its victims in ways all too familiar to people in 19th century Russia. There are versions of the songs for voice and orchestra by Glazunov/ Rimsky-Korsakov and others, the latest being by Dmitri Shostakovich. But the songs were originally written for piano and voice, with the piano doing much more than simply accompanying the singer. Singer and piano combine in some of the most powerful songs ever written. As I do not understand Russian, I can only approximate the full effect of these songs in the original language. But I am enough of a musician to understand some of the musical power and drama Mussorgsky put into these songs. Music itself is a language, and Mussorgsky expresses much in these songs written for the two instruments he understood very well; the piano and human voice. I want to thank Sergy Rybin for extending his kind permission to include his translation of the Russian texts. --- muswrite.blogspot.com

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Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition - Choral Works (Abbado) [2005]

2009-10-24T21:47:43Z

Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition - Choral Works (Abbado) [2005]


1. Night On Bald Mountain
2. The Destruction Of Sennacherib
3. Salammbo
4. Oedipus In Athens
5. Joshua
6. Pictures At An Exhibition - Promenade
7. Pictures At An Exhibition - Gnomus
8. Pictures At An Exhibition - Promenade
9. Pictures At An Exhibition - The Old Castle
10. Pictures At An Exhibition - The Tuileries Gardens
11. Pictures At An Exhibition - Bydlo
12. Pictures At An Exhibition - Promenade
13. Pictures At An Exhibition - Ballet Of The Chickens In Their Shells
14. Pictures At An Exhibition - Ballet Of The Chickens In Their Shells
15. Pictures At An Exhibition - The Market-Place At Limoges
16. Pictures At An Exhibition - The Catacombs (Sepulchrum Romanum)
17. Pictures At An Exhibition - Cum Mortuis In Lingua Mortua
18. Pictures At An Exhibition - The Hut On Fowl's Legs (Baba-Yaga)
19. Pictures At An Exhibition - The Great Gate Of Kiev

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Claudio Abbado – conductor

Claudio Abbado, to my knowledge, is the only major conductor to record entire non-opera recordings devoted to Mussorgsky. This is his third such recording, although all the works on this recording are re-recordings that Abbado made earlier for RCA and DG.

Abbado seems to have a preference for the original version of Night on Bald Mountain, rather than the more common Rimsky-Korsakov arrangement of the work. The original version is quite different from the re-orchestrated version, and Mussorgsky has some interesting ideas. The structure of the tone-poem in Mussorgsky's hands in quite loose and episodic, and it is clear why Rimsky-Korsakov felt that he needed to re-orchestrate it. I just wish, however, that Rimsky-Korsakov would have used more of Mussorsky's unique tonal palette in his orchestration.

The four choral pieces on this disk are all short, pleasant, and well worth hearing. The sequence of the pieces make for a very satifying whole.

The real reason to buy this disk, however, if for Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Abbado recorded it earlier in 1981 with the London Symphony, and his interpretation had changed little when this recording was made. Compared to the 1986 version by Karajan with this orchestra, Abbado is more poetic and less dramatic than Karajan. The performance is very satifying in its own right, even though it lacks the "wow" factor of the Karajan recording.

The live recordings are warm, with great impact where appropriate. The bass drum and the tam-tam in Pictures are superbly caught.

I slightly prefer the Karajan in Pictures, but this certainly a fine alternative. ---oldfolks, amazon.com

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