Composer: Modest Mussorgsky
Orchestra: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Conductor: Mariss Jansons
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: RCO Live
Catalogue: RCO09004
Release: 2010
Size: 539 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Pictures at an Exhibition
01. I. Promenade 1
02. II. Gnomus
03. III. Promenade 2
04. IV. The Old Castle
05. V. Promenade 3
06. VI. Tuileries
07. VII. Bydlo
08. VIII. Promenade 4
09. IX. Ballet of the Chickens in Their Shells
10. X. Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle
11. XI. The Market at Limoges
12. XII. Catacombs
13. XIII. Cum mortuis in lingua mortua
14. XIV. The Hut on Hen’s Legs
15. XV. The Great Gate of Kiev
Recorded Live Concertgebouw Amsterdam on 22, 23 May & 29 Aug 2008.
A special-priced release on RCO Live of Mussorgsky’s much-loved Pictures at an exhibition in Ravel’s orchestration. Recorded live at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Mariss Jansons and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, on magnificent form, produce a wonderful palette of colours and sonority in this dazzling orchestral piece.
In this day and age, a compact disc with a playing time of 33:02 is more than a tad short, but what is here is stunning: an account of Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition that reveals the grandeur of the music in a performance of tremendous vitality and a recording of stupendous immediacy. Mariss Jansons finds things in this well-known score that most conductors miss — details of articulation, phrasing and balance that often go unnoted — and brings out the work’s enormous variety of forms, moods, and colors. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam plays with its accustomed super virtuosity, reveling in overcoming the score’s prodigious challenges with effortless panache. RCO Live’s super audio recording captures everything in sound that puts the listener in the Concertgebouw about 10 rows back from the stage. But, really, only 33:02? Why not more Ravel or more Mussorgsky, a bit of Borodin or a slice of Stravinsky? What’s here is inestimable, but it leaves the listener eager for more.