BaL 07.06.25 - Mussorgsky: Pictures at an exhibition

[Pulcinella]

3pm
Building a Library
Marina Frolova-Walker's personal recommendation for the ultimate recording of Mussorgsky's colourful, evocative Pictures at an Exhibition.

No mention of piano or orchestral version (and whose).

Presto listing here:
Orchestral version (560 results):

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/works/59488--mussorgsky-pictures-at-an-exhibition/browse

Piano version (161 results):

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/works/77092--mussorgsky-pictures-at-an-exhibition-piano-version/browse

The work has featured twice on BBC MM Cover CDs.

Volume 2, Number 9: BBC Philharmonic/Yan Pascal Tortelier (orch. Ravel). Recorded in the Concert Hall of New Broadcasting House, Manchester on 14 December 1993.
Volume 29, Number 11: BBCNOW/François-Xavier Roth (orchestrated. Wood). Recorded live at the BBC Proms, 2 September 2010.

[Wolfram]

Just heard Benjamin Grosvenor play this at the Wigmore Hall; he was quite outstanding.

[oliver sudden]

No mention of piano or orchestral version (and whose).

I cross my fingers that that means it will be the version Mussorgsky actually wrote! It’s a bit of a pity that that has to be referred to as ‘the piano version’…

[Pulcinella]

I cross my fingers that that means it will be the version Mussorgsky actually wrote! It’s a bit of a pity that that has to be referred to as ‘the piano version’…

Given the dismal state of the R3 website, and their predilection for announcing that we've heard a whole piece instead of just the movement they actually played, we may well find that this BaL considers only violin and harpsichord arrangements of The great gate of Kyiv (formerly known as Kiev).

[Wolfram]

I cross my fingers that that means it will be the version Mussorgsky actually wrote! It’s a bit of a pity that that has to be referred to as ‘the piano version’…

……instead of the ‘original version’, perhaps? After hearing Grosvenor play it last night I’m tempted to say the orchestrations add little to the ‘original version’.

I expect that it will be the Ravel orchestration though, with a brief nod to the alternatives.

[smittims]

I've only recently come to like this work: why, I cannot say, except that taste does change with age. I like both the Stokowski and Ravel versions, though I regret that Stokowski omitted two of the movements. A fine recording of the Ravel, which I didn't know of until I found a World Record Club LP of it recently, is (probably) a late 1950s Columbia recordign by the Philharmonia orchestra and Lorin Maazel, exellent sound for its date.

It's interesting to go back to the original Koussevitzky recording, now very dated of of course, but refreshing in that it takes us back to the appearance of the Ravel, which seemed quickly to replace all others.

[Darloboy]

The piano original was last covered by BaL in July 02 when David Fanning chose Yefim Bronfman with Richter’s 1958 recording as historical choice.

M F-W normally presents BaLs on orchestral music so I suspect we’re going to get the Ravel orchestration, which has been covered on numerous occasions:

John Warrack (Sep 90): LSO/Abbado with Chicago SO/Giulini also recommended

David Nice (July 02 & revisited July 05): Oslo PO/Jansons with Koussevitzky 1930 as historic choice

Stephen Walsh (Jan 12): BPO/Abbado

[Petrushka]

I'd also assume that it will be the Ravel orchestration under discussion with a possible nod to other versions.

I've got a couple of Stokowski orchestrated versions from BBCPO/Bamert and Cleveland/Knussen but otherwise lots of the Ravel.

The ones I turn to most (though I've not played it for ages) are Chicago SO/Reiner, BPO/Karajan (1960s), LSO/Abbado, Cleveland/Szell and Chicago SO/Giulini.

Fun fact: Adolph 'Bud' Herseth plays solo trumpet on seven of the Chicago SO recordings from 1951 to 1990 with Reiner, Kubelik, Ozawa, Giulini, Solti (CD & DVD) and Neeme Järvi. I saw him perform it with Solti and the CSO at a 1981 Prom.

[Darloboy]

For some reason, the Presto site doesn’t list the Emerson, Lake and Palmer recording ?

[Pulcinella]

I've only recently come to like this work: why, I cannot say, except that taste does change with age. I like both the Stokowski and Ravel versions, though I regret that Stokowski omitted two of the movements. A fine recording of the Ravel, which I didn't know of until I found a World Record Club LP of it recently, is (probably) a late 1950s Columbia recordign by the Philharmonia orchestra and Lorin Maazel, exellent sound for its date.

It's interesting to go back to the original Koussevitzky recording, now very dated of of course, but refreshing in that it takes us back to the appearance of the Ravel, which seemed quickly to replace all others.

I have that in the Warner Complete Works box (unless there's an earlier version you're referring to?): recorded 19–29 June 1962, Kingsway Hall, London.

Apart from the two BBC MM CDs, I also have

Chicago SO/Solti
Cleveland Orchestra/Szell
and
Rotterdam PO/de Waart, which is coupled with the original version for piano played by Misha Dichter.

[cloughie]

For some reason, the Presto site doesn’t list the Emerson, Lake and Palmer recording ?

Nor Tomita!

[Ein Heldenleben]

For some reason, the Presto site doesn’t list the Emerson, Lake and Palmer recording ?

One of the greatest live versions of course featuring the Harrison Organ at Newcastle City Hall ….

Ha - according to Wiki Keith Emerson had to promise not to stick knives in it before permission to play it was granted!

[silvestrione]

Just heard Benjamin Grosvenor play this at the Wigmore Hall; he was quite outstanding.

Yes, me too. You certainly felt at the end that Kviv had won the war....
Though there was the solemnity and sheer impact, felt in the whole hall you sensed, of the 'Catacombs', and its follow-up meditation.

[smittims]

Thanks for that 1962, Pucinella: that'll be the one. I didn't have a date (they rarely gave them on LP sleeves) but I guessed Kingsway Hall from the sound,and Columbia from the matrix (YAX: mono LPs were XAX) .

[oliver sudden]

Yes, me too. You certainly felt at the end that Kviv had won the war....
Though there was the solemnity and sheer impact, felt in the whole hall you sensed, of the 'Catacombs', and its follow-up meditation.

By a strange coincidence my old Boosey pocket score of the Ravel arrangement singles out the Great Gate and the Catacombs as moments which in the original cry out for orchestration. And yet for me they’re astounding studies in resonance in the original, whereas in even the best renditions of the Ravel I twiddle my thumbs a bit—in the Great Gate alone, there’s nothing an orchestra can do to match that scale hurtling downwards over pretty much the entire keyboard with the pedal down, the clattering bells of the original gain nothing and lose much from Ravel’s ‘Waldweben’ treatment, and the ringing dissonances of the last half a page or so must surely be unorchestratable.

The orchestra giveth and the orchestra taketh away. For me, compared to the best the piano discography has to offer, it’s mostly taketh away, as much as I loved the Ravel version as a nipper.