{"id":1874,"date":"2016-10-28T00:34:10","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T00:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/altocd.com\/northernflowers\/?p=462"},"modified":"2024-01-23T23:57:28","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T23:57:28","slug":"nfpma9906","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/altocd.com\/northernflowers\/product\/nfpma9906\/","title":{"rendered":"Modest Mussorgsky. Pictures On An Exhibition"},"content":{"rendered":"

M.P.\u00a0MUSSORGSKY<\/strong>(1839\u20131881)<\/p>\n

Walpurgis Night
\nPictures On An Exhibition (arranged by M.Ravel)
\nSymphonic Fragments from the Operas
\nKhovanschina
\nSorochintsy Fair<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Volgograd Symphony Orchestra<\/strong>
\nEdward Serov <\/strong>, Conductor<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1.<\/td>\nWalpurgis Night, a symphonic picture, 1867
\nArranged and edited by N.\u00a0Rimsky\u2013Korsakov<\/td>\n		\n

11.20<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

2.<\/td>\nDaybreak On The Moskva River (Introduction to the opera Khovanschina<\/em>)<\/td>\n\n

5.23<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

3.<\/td>\nDance Of Persian Girls from the opera Khovanschina<\/em>
\nArranged and edited by N.\u00a0Rimsky\u2013Korsakov<\/td>\n		\n

8.06<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

4.<\/td>\nProcession of Prince Golitsyn\u2019s Cortege (Entr\u2019acte to Act 3 of the opera Khovanschina<\/em>)
\nArranged and edited by D.\u00a0Shostakovich<\/td>\n		\n

4.54<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

5.<\/td>\nIntroduction to the opera Sorochintsy Fair<\/em><\/td>\n\n

5.19<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

6.<\/td>\nGopak Dance from the opera Sorochintsy Fair<\/em>
\nArranged and edited by A.\u00a0Lyadov<\/td>\n		\n

1.55<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\u201cPictures On An Exhibition\u201d, 1874 (arranged by Maurice Ravel in 1922)<\/strong><\/td>\n\n

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

7.<\/td>\nPromenade. A\u00a0Dwarf<\/td>\n\n

5.04<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

8.<\/td>\nPromenade. An Old Castle<\/td>\n\n

5.38<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

9.<\/td>\nPromenade. The Tuillery Garden<\/td>\n\n

2.02<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

10.<\/td>\nCanaille<\/td>\n\n

2.50<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

11.<\/td>\nPromenade. A Ballet Of Nestlings In Their Eggshells<\/td>\n\n

2.15<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

12.<\/td>\nTwo Jews, A Rich And A Poor One<\/td>\n\n

2.35<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

13.<\/td>\nLimoges. Market. (Big News)<\/td>\n\n

3.43<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

14.<\/td>\nThe Catacombs. (Roman Tomb). To The Dead In A Dead Tongue<\/td>\n\n

2.17<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

15.<\/td>\nThe Hut of Baba Yaga. Paladin\u2019s Gate<\/td>\n\n

9.46<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Total Time<\/td>\n\n

73.32<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Recorded in the Central Concert Hall in Volgograd, 1994. Sound Engineer: Semyon Shugal
\nText: Marina Kolmakova. English text: Sergei Suslov
\nDesign: Anastasia Evmenova, Oleg Fakhrutdinov.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
\n
M.P.\u00a0MUSSORGSKY: Walpurgis Night, Pictures On An Exhibition (arranged by M.\u00a0Ravel), Symphonic Fragments from the Operas Khovanschina<\/em> and Sorochintsy Fair<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n
The proportion of instrumental compositions in the creative heritage of Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky is relatively small. The composer\u2019s predominant interest was in music related in such or another way to word and drama: opera, songs, vocal chains. Even his only large symphonic piece Walpurgis Night<\/strong> (lit. \u201cSt. John\u2019s Night On Mount Brocken\u201d) written in 1867 refers to a imaginative plot borrowed by the author from ancient tales, and from a book by M.\u00a0Khotinsky titled \u201cWitchcraft and Mystical Phenomena in Recent Times\u201d. The piece is based on four major episodes: Gathering of witches, their chatter and gossiping \u2014 Procession of Satan\u2019s cortege \u2014 Perverse glorification of Satan – The sabbath. Mussorgsky composed the music in just twelve days, writing a \u201cclean copy” of the last-and-only edition at once. He completed his work on the eve of St.\u00a0John\u2019s Day, or the 23rd of June. Ancient Slavs believed this day to be a dedicated magic day when all evil spirits flew in to reunite at a certain place for their annual sabbath, which lasted all night long until the first crow of a rooster.<\/div>\n
The musical picture Walpurgis Night<\/i> remains the only self-contained orchestra piece by Mussorgsky. Other pieces presented on this disc are symphonic fragments from his operas Khovahschina<\/i> and Sorochintsy Fair<\/i>, often performed in concerts as separate compositions. Especially popular is the symphonic picture Daybreak on the Moskva River<\/strong>, the introduction to Khovanschina. In this piece, which is really song-like in its essence, the idea of eternal undying Beauty and the world’s harmony is given with amazing absoluteness. Other symphonic episodes from operas are also typical for their dazzling expressive imagery: the devil\u2013may\u2013care Gopak<\/strong> and joyful, driving Introduction<\/strong> from the comical opera Sorochintsy Fair<\/i>; the orientally nonchalant and charming Dance of Persian Girls<\/strong>, and tragic Procession of Prince Golitsyn\u2019s Cortege<\/strong> from Khovanschina<\/i>.<\/div>\n
\u201cSounds and ideas soar in the air, I swallow them and stuff myself, and can hardly keep pace to scribble on paper\u2026 Work is going on fine! \u201d <\/i> We can see that the composer worked with tremendous, ardent passion, and the result was his most admiring instrumental piece, the piano series \u201cPictures On An Exhibition\u201d. This is not his only opus for piano, far from it \u2014 but no other piano piece by Mussorgsky, however charming in details, can be judged on a par with the operatic and vocal masterpieces of the composer. The only exception, and the majestic exception indeed, is the \u201cPictures On An Exhibition\u201d with which the composer opened a new glorious page of Russian pianism of the 19th century.<\/div>\n
It should be said that the reason, or the driving force for Mussorgsky to compose the opus was, in fact, a very sad one. On July 23rd, 1873 architect Victor Gartman, the composer’s close friend, died unexpectedly in a village of Kireyevo near Moscow. \u201cThat ignorant idiot \u2014 Death \u2014 mows down without thinking if her damned visit makes any sense\u201d<\/i>, wrote horrified Mussorgsky in a letter of that time. Next February, a posthumous exhibition was arranged of Gartman’s works, drafts, sketches, watercolours. It was then that Mussorgsky first had an idea of \u201crendering in sound\u201d some of the exhibits in memory of his friend.<\/div>\n
It seems to be the first\u2013ever attempt by a composer to create a sound analog of an artwork exhibition. Of course, this was by no means mere copying or following Gartman\u2019s graphic fantasies. On the other hand, the very attempt to use the pattern of an exhibition as an original basis for a musical composition should be recognized as Mussorgsky\u2019s novel idea. His \u201cPictures\u201d (\u201cpictures\u201d are the word, not \u201ccanvases\u201d or \u201cpainting\u201d, for Gartman never was a painter, his art was architecture and what is today called \u2018art design\u2019) are a collection of sketches dear to the composer \u2014 but also the author\u2019s perception of the same, and even the ghost of the artist that enters your imagination and brings along the theme of mysterious existence behind the looking\u2013glass that waits on the other side of the real earthly world.<\/div>\n
Mussorgsky makes the piano sound as colourfully as an orchestra. It might seem very easy to give this piece an instrumentation, just as easy as to transfer a symphony from a keyboard score to an orchestra score. But the author did not intend to make an orchestration. As to the versions of his \u201cRussian Five\u201d friends and colleagues, they are now open to just as many doubts as their arrangements of Mussorgsky\u2019s operas: well\u2013meaning attempts to smooth down the willful genius simplify him, they cut short the wings of his wild fantasy.<\/div>\n
Surprisingly, an orchestration of \u201cPictures On An Exhibition\u201d that seems the most sensitive to the style of the original was made not by a Russian composer but by a foreigner who, quite mystically, managed to understand the notorious enigma of the Russian soul \u2014 and the enigma, too, of the creative manner of Mussorgsky. It was Maurice Ravel who did it, a Frenchman who highly valued the heritage of the great Russian master. His Pictures are painted with fluorescent ethereal colours, befitting the inspired light breathing of the author\u2019s music. This score is extremely difficult to perform, it suggests a virtuoso level of musicianship in every individual and the orchestra as a whole; it suggests, above all, the conductor’s refined taste and imagination in dealing with the material. Ravel\u2019s arrangement at first seemed controversial, but finally won universal recognition, for the result is an amazingly beautiful sound pattern, ideally close in spirit to the piano masterpiece of Mussorgsky, and such result is worth any difficulties of learning Ravel\u2019s version of \u201cPictures\u201d.<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NF\/PMA 9906<\/h2>\n

Catalogue Number: NF\/PMA 9906
\nBarcode:\u00a04607053326710
\nPrice: \u00a310.99<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":67,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[17],"product_tag":[],"class_list":["post-1874","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-northern-flowers","content-wrap","first","instock","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/altocd.com\/northernflowers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/1874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/altocd.com\/northernflowers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/altocd.com\/northernflowers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altocd.com\/northernflowers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altocd.com\/northernflowers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/altocd.com\/northernflowers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altocd.com\/northernflowers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=1874"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altocd.com\/northernflowers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=1874"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altocd.com\/northernflowers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=1874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}