April: Mussorgsky: Pictures At An Exhibition

[fergus]

The only other orchestrated version of Pictures at an Exhibition that I have is this one....






Interestingly I find this one to be darker, more pensive, more dramatic and more atmospheric than Ravel’s version. The Stokowski version definitely has a more Russian flavour to it. To me it is by far my favoured of the two orchestrated versions that I own. I just feel that the sound pictures that Stokowski creates are much more evocative and are better interpretations of the paintings that we have discussed and that they also have better orchestral textures and colours. Just my humble opinion.

Interestingly Stokowski left out two pictures namely Tuilleries and the Market Place at Limoges according to the liner notes “presumably because they sounded too French and/or he thought they were actually written by Rimsky-Korsakov”!?!?!?!

[Jared]

I have stated before that this work is not one that floats my boat but this fine thread has stimulated an interest in it for me. Incredulously I find myself now saying that I much prefer the original piano version to this version! Given what I know now as a result of Jared’s efforts I find that listening to the piano version is much more rewarding, especially to the imagination. Perhaps Szell’s is not the best version, I don’t know, or perhaps Richter’s playing and interpretation is just so good? An interesting result for me methinks!!

Thank you for your continued enthusiasm throughout this thread Fergus; it has been greatly appreciated, and I am really pleased that you have benefited from a return to the piano version at least... I feel it's just like you said in your opening remarks in the Four Seasons, that over-exposure to some pieces within the everyday sphere can dull your sensibilities toward a greater understanding of the finer detail, and I also feel this to be the case here.

I would like to hear from others as we near the end of the month; would you feel that a basic description of the orchestration of any of Ravel's pictures be of help and benefit to you? I realise that Don Quixote is now just around the corner, galloping over the horizon toward us on his trusty steed and I certainly don't want to get in Darren's way... I'll leave this question open to you all and see what responses I get; I'll add to the notes during early May if there's enough interest in continuing, or I could leave it here for the time being... it's up to you all...

Many thanks to everyone for your participation....

[fergus]

How curious that I should pick this up on vinyl in a local charity shop....

[Seán]

[Duplicate post]

[Seán]

Jared, this is a splendid thread, I have returned to it again and again and have really enjoyed reading your highly informative posts and posts by Fergus and others too. I revisited it again tonight before I listened to my one and only orchestral recording of the Pictures and I think that this is a superb performance:



Well done Jared, the Pictures was an inspired choice and you have created an inspring thread. You will have to dispense with all notions of you're being a newbie now though.

[fergus]

Well done Jared, the Pictures was an inspired choice and you have created an inspring thread. You will have to dispense with all notions of you're being a newbie now though.

I second everything there Seán!

[Diapason]

Yet again the month has run away from me and I haven't put nearly enough effort into writing up my thoughts. I listened to Pictures quite a lot this month in various versions, so huge thanks to Jared for bringing us on this little journey. I also learned a thing or two when I went looking for the original piano score online, and found it at odds with my purchased score in quite a few areas. So some of the "problems" I have with one of my recordings are explained by the original markings.

In any case, I have 2 piano versions,
Nicoloas Economou:


and Hyperion Knight:


Despite paeans of praise for Economou's skills (not least here: http://www.nicolaseconomou.com/inmemoriam2.htm) I really don't rate his performance here at all, sounding rushed at times, eccentric at times, and never fully of a piece. That said, some of my criticisms (the ridiculous rush from the opening promenade into Gnomus, the ff from the word go in Bydlo, the ignored staccato dots, etc.) can be explained by his allegiance to the original version of the score. I'm not sure who changed it in subsequent editions, or whether what I have contains editorial changes, but those differences exist. In any case, even allowing for that, I don't recommend this recording for Mussorgsky. FWIW, the Schumann fares much better to my ears, a finding in stark contrast with the reviews at the time.

The Hyperion Knight CD was bought for its audiophile credentials (recorded at the Skywalker ranch by Wilson of Grand Slamm fame, etc.) and sonically it is indeed pretty good. As well as having the coolest name imaginable, Hyperion Knight is a versatile musician by all accounts, and he does a solid enough job here. Nothing to scare the horses, nothing too deep, just solid. Amazingly, one of the piano strings goes ridiculously out of tune towards the end of The Great Gate, and I can't believe the take was left in given how much trouble was taken over the rest of the recording. It makes you wonder.

I said upthread that while I used to love the piece, I don't consider this music to be very "deep", and I don't find it as rewarding in the longer-term. It may be that I find both of these recordings a little flippant, and I think more could be made of the little details within the music. Those details make or break a performance of this work (on piano) to my mind, so maybe there's a recording out there that could reignite my passion for this work.

[Diapason]

While I don't think Ravel always nails the tone of the piece, I am a big fan of his orchestration for the sheer imagination and diversity of sound. It's a fantastic effort to take the piano score and turn it into this, and I really think this orchestration looms so large in the mind that it affects the way people play the piano piece now. I know I certainly find it hard to shake off the orchestral sounds when I look at the piano score. I've two versions here:

Sinipoli/NYPO


Levi/Atlanta


I find the Sinipoli more interesting in many ways, but the Levi more enjoyable, so that's the one I generally listen to. The only problem here is that the entire Pictures... is just one track, as this is from the era when Telarc encoded the no-longer-used Index Points to separate movements. Very messy if you don't fancy listening to the whole thing. Good performances though, and good sound. Sinipoli goes for more unusual orchestral balances which sometimes work and sometimes don't, but I'm very happy to have it to refer to from time to time.

[Diapason]

Given my view that Pictures is a virtuoso showpiece without a huge amount of depth, it sounds perfect for that most infuriating of organists, Jean Guillou:


I always admire Guillou's fantastic technique, but I don't always admire his interpretations, as he's prone to doing things that seem to be eccentric for the sake of being eccentric. Here, I'll let him away with almost all of it because this disc is so much fun. The organ played here is an absolute beast, designed in conjunction with Guillou himself and full of unusual options. The recording is a barn-stormer, absolutely world-class, demonstration-level stuff. Guillou starts things off in the opening Promenade by changing the stops very regularly, which is a little disconcerting at first but kind of works. Gnomus is great, Ballet of the chicks is great, Bydlo is good, the other pictures are all reasonably enjoyable. Until...

You'd think that if any instrument can do justice to the blazing opening chords of the Great Gate it's the organ. Come on, it's pretty much MADE for this kind of hymn-tune configuration, and the contrast between the end of Baba Yaga's Hut and the beginning of the Great Gate is EXACTLY the kind of thing the organ does well. But no, Guillou has to screw it all up. He keeps the flourish at the end of Baba Yaga going, playing the Great Gate theme almost as an afterthought, and also accompanying it with scale passages to ensure that the later scale passage is also ruined. Disaster. I nearly always end up putting the orchestral version of the Great Gate on afterwards for some kind of closure.

Still, a great disc, and one I wouldn't want to be without.

[james]

I actually have this CD version
http://www.shop.performancerecordings.c ... roductId=4
which combines "World's only comparison of (a) pure digital, (b) digital-from-analog, made at the same time from the same microphones; (a) and (b) on the CD".

But the point of my post is the following from the Album Notes
http://www.performancerecordings.com/pr7-notes.htm

where the pianist discusses differences bwtween the printed score and the autograph score

"....
Yet I've always wished for a copy of Mussorgsky's handwritten score, to clear up some puzzling things in the usual editions. Finally I got my wish. When I began restudying the piece a year before this performance, I said to a friend at Caltech how much I'd like to have an autograph facsimile, as we call it. I went home that very day and found one in the mail, sent by a friend in Europe with whom I'd had no contact for almost a year!

In the solitary working life of a pianist, it's easy to take this kind of thing as a sign that you're on the right track. More important, the autograph puts you on the right track by letting you see what Mussorgsky actually set down on paper. Gnomus, for instance, portrays a gnome's-head nutcracker. In the autograph score, the music ends with a snapped-off chord which we may hear as the jaws snapping a nut. Most editions have the chord rolled, which destroys the effect.

Bydlo,the Oxcart, begins loudly in some editions and softly in others. For years I began it softly, imagining the cart approaching from a distance. A look at the autograph showed that this was wrong! Mussorgsky marked it fortissimo, very loud. The rude cart and oxen are immediately bearing down on you. The contrast is extreme with Tuileries preceding, a nostalgic picture of an afternoon scene in the famous Parisian gardens, in which you can hear the children taunting each other, "Nyah, nyah," and running about.

The first bar of "Samuel" Goldenberg and "Schmuyle" has a different rhythm from what's shown in the usual editions. The true rhythm is more pompous, more in keeping with the personality it portrays. And in the middle section of Baba-Yaga, just before the loud music starts again, the very lowest note is not a low G, it's an even lower E, more logical in the sequence of the music, and certainly more impressive.
.."


james