Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition, Night on the Bare

Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition, Night on the Bare Mountain

Valery Gergiev's absorbing traversal of Pictures at an Exhibition stresses composer Mussorgsky's elemental sensibility over Ravel's urbane orchestration. The conductor achieves this by encouraging the Vienna Philharmonic brass to play up their characteristically broad sonority, especially from the elemental choralelike writing in Catacombae until the concluding Great Gate at Kiev's shattering climax. Some of the conductor's rubatos, however, seem grafted on rather than genuinely felt, like the arch clarinet ritard in Tuileries and the overphrased string legatos that bog down The Old Castle's basic pulse. Philips' spacious sonics convey a palpable concert hall ambience (this is, after all, a live recording), yet lack the dynamic impact and vivid detail one still hears from the benchmark Reiner and Szell editions. As a result, Night on the Bare Mountain's swirling momentum sounds diffused and dramatically flat. The Khovanshina Prelude and Gopak, though, make delightful fillers. --Jed Distler
Country USA
Brand UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP
Manufacturer Philips
Binding Audio CD
ItemPartNumber 028946852620
ReleaseDate 2002-05-14
UnitCount 1
UPCs 028946852620
EANs 0028946852620

Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition, Night on the Bare Mountain