{"id":1847,"date":"2016-10-26T05:28:23","date_gmt":"2016-10-26T05:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/altocd.com\/northernflowers\/?p=303"},"modified":"2024-01-24T00:45:37","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T00:45:37","slug":"nfpma9939","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/altocd.com\/northernflowers\/product\/nfpma9939\/","title":{"rendered":"Mussorgsky and Rachmaninoff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mussorgsky. <\/strong> Pictures at an Exhibition <\/em>
\nRachmaninoff. <\/strong> Seven Preludes<\/em>
\nSergey Schepkin<\/strong>, piano<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nMussorgsky.<\/strong> Pictures at an Exhibition<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1.<\/td>\nPromenade<\/td>\n\n

\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

2.<\/td>\nGnomus [The Gnome]<\/td>\n\n

\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

3.<\/td>\nPromenade<\/td>\n\n

\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

4.<\/td>\nIl vecchio castello [The Old Castle]<\/td>\n\n

\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

5.<\/td>\nPromenade<\/td>\n\n

\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

6.<\/td>\nLes Tuileries: Dispute d\u2019enfants apr\u00e8s jeux [The Tuileries Gardens: Children\u2019s Quarrel after a Game]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7.<\/td>\nByd\u0142o [Oxen]<\/td>\n\n

\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

8.<\/td>\nPromenade<\/td>\n\n

\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

9.<\/td>\nBallet of Unhatched Chicks (Trilby)<\/td>\n\n

\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

10.<\/td>\nTwo Polish Jews: One Rich, the Other Poor (Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11.<\/td>\nPromenade<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
12.<\/td>\nLimoges. Le March\u00e9 (La grande nouvelle) [Limoges. The Marketplace (Great News)]<\/td>\n13.<\/td>\nCatacombae: Sepulcrum Romanum [Catacombs: The Roman Burial Caves]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
14.<\/td>\nCon mortuis in lingua mortua (With the Dead in a Dead Language)<\/td>\n15.<\/td>\nThe Hut on Chicken\u2019s Legs (Baba\u2013Yaga)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16.<\/td>\nThe Great Gate of Kiev<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Rachmaninoff<\/strong>. Seven Preludes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

17.<\/td>\nPrelude in C\u2013sharp minor, Op. 3, No. 2 (1892)<\/td>\n18.<\/td>\nPrelude in C minor, Op. 23, No. 7 (1903)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
19.<\/td>\nPrelude in G, Op. 32, No. 5 (1910)<\/td>\n20.<\/td>\nPrelude in D minor, Op. 23, No. 3 (1903)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
21.<\/td>\nPrelude in G minor, Op. 23, No. 5 (1901)<\/td>\n22.<\/td>\nPrelude in E-flat, Op. 23, No. 6 (1903)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
23.<\/td>\nPrelude in B-flat, Op. 23, No. 2 (1903)<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Sergey Schepkin<\/a><\/strong>, piano<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Recording and editing: Patrick Keating;\u00a0\u00a0Producer: Sergey Schepkin;\u00a0\u00a0Photography: Kathy Chapman, 2005;\u00a0\u00a0Piano technician: Anthony McKenna;\u00a0\u00a0Piano: Steinway;\u00a0\u00a0Recording location: New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA, USA;\u00a0\u00a0Recording dates: July 30, 2005 (Mussorgsky); January 13, 2002 (Rachmaninoff)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition<\/strong><\/p>\n

Called by Sviatoslav Richter \u201cthe most profound Russian piano composition, \u201d this is undoubtedly one of the best\u2013known 19th\u2013century piano cycles, next to Schumann\u2019s \u201cCarnaval,” Chopin\u2019s Twenty-Four Preludes, and Liszt\u2019s \u201cAnn\u00e9es de P\u00e8lerinage.” In the twentieth century, \u201cPictures\u201d have achieved wide fame thanks to the orchestration by Maurice Ravel as well as appropriation by many virtuosi \u2014 including competition virtuosi. Unfortunately, in performance, the cycle\u2019s philosophical essence is often jettisoned in favor of the decorative (\u201csalade russe\u201d<\/em>) aspect as celebrated by Ravel\u2019s orchestration. The work\u2019s original text has also been mutilated by many pianists: dynamics are frequently altered, notes added, entire pages rewritten for the sake of a supposedly greater effect; the myth, according to which Mussorgsky was an inept amateur, albeit a genius, still persists.<\/p>\n

In my opinion, Mussorgsky knew perfectly well what he was doing. His piano writing is, for the most part, superbly idiomatic (the few uncomfortable passages can be \u201cfixed\u201d by slightly altering the hands\u2019 distribution without changing a single note). The architecture of the work is impeccable, as is the working\u2013out of the details.<\/p>\n

The work was intended as a memorial to the composer\u2019s close friend, the painter and architect Victor Hartmann who had unexpectedly died in 1873; a retrospective of Hartmann\u2019s works was given at the Academy of the Fine Arts in St. Petersburg in 1874, and the emergence of Mussorgky\u2019s work is owed to that particular exhibit. Ultimately, however, the composer transcended the pictorial originals and created his own universe. The work is perhaps not so much about individual pictures as about the place of Russia in the world.<\/p>\n

The Promenades play a double structural role in the cycle: they divide the work into smaller sub-cycles and unify the whole construction by the similarity of their thematic material based on trichordal motifs stemming from Russian folksongs. Their aesthetic function lies in providing the composer\u2019s \u2014 the exhibition\u2019s spectator\u2019s \u2014 reaction to what he sees, as well as delineating the response of a Russian to the phenomena of \u201cthe world out there.\u201d There are six Promenades in total: \u201cCon mortuis in lingua mortua\u201d is, in fact, the last Promenade, even though it is not defined as such; according to Mussorgsky\u2019s own admission, it represents the composer\u2019s spiritual communication with the soul of his deceased friend. To omit the second \u201cbig\u201d Promenade (before \u201cLimoges\u201d) \u2014 which is Ravel\u2019s procedure that is still emulated by some pianists – is to destroy the work by pulling out a pillar that is strategically placed at the cycle\u2019s golden section point. The Promenades\u2019 main theme finally reappears in the \u201cbell\u201d section of \u201cThe Heroic Gate,\u201d spanning the entire cycle like a gigantic arch.<\/p>\n

The \u201cpictures\u2019\u201d imagery is mostly non\u2013Russian \u2014 Hartmann traveled widely in Europe; \u201cthe Russian theme\u201d appears only in the last two of them. The number of \u201cpictures\u201d equals ten, set in pairs. Each pair is arranged according to the principle of contrast that can be perceived in aesthetic and spiritual terms, and each new pair offers a higher level of philosophical perspective. The grotesque in \u201cGnomus\u201d is contrasted by the ideal in \u201cIl vecchio castello\u201d; the urbane grace of \u201cTuileries\u201d is followed by the drunken oblivion of the ox-cart driver\u2019s song in \u201cByd\u0142o.\u201d The shimmering fantasy world of the \u201cBallet of Unhatched Chicks\u201d is given a stark contrast in \u201cSamuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle,\u201d a terse and poignant essay on the human condition; the ebullient picture of life in \u201cLimoges\u201d is followed by the ghastly image of death in the \u201cCatacombs.\u201d Russia, in its elemental capacity, makes a tumultuous entry in \u201cBaba-Yaga,\u201d the latter being the proper name of the grande dame of witchcraft in Russian fairy tales. The demonic is, however, ultimately conquered by the sublime in \u201cThe Heroic Gate of Kiev\u201d \u2014 the movement that shows Russia in all of its shining splendor and religious fervor.<\/p>\n

\u201cPictures” is, in fact, Mussorgsky’s companion piece to \u201cBoris Godunov” and a response to many questions posed in that opera. While the message of \u201cBoris” was a negative one \u2014 Russia as a land of no hope \u2014 that of \u201cPictures” is quite the opposite. Mussorgsky’s faith in Russia is expressed here with unabashed enthusiasm. In the philosophical outlook of this work, Mussorgsky anticipated, by six years, the content of Fyodor Dostoyevsky\u2019s famous speech at the unveiling of the Pushkin monument in Moscow: the writer defined the essence of the Russian national character as openness to the entire world and willingness to embrace the best in it; according to Dostoyevsky, Pushkin did exactly that in his work. Mussorgsky\u2019s Russia, as it appears in \u201cPictures\u201d, not only embraces the whole world but also redeems it spiritually.<\/p>\n

Program Notes by Sergey Schepkin<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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