Classical Editor: Rob Barnett                               Founder Len Mullenger: Len@musicweb-international.com


Modeste MUSSORGSKY (1839-1881)
Pictures at an Exhibition (arr. Lawrence Leonard)
Two Interludes from Khovantschina
Gopak
from Sorochinsky Fair (orch. Liadov)
Pictures from Crimea (orch. Walter Goehr)
Scherzo in B flat (orch. Rimsky-Korsakov)
A Tear-Drop (orch. Hans Kindler)
Night on the Bald Mountain (orch. Rimsky-Korsakov)

Tamas Ungar (piano)
Philharmonia Orchestra - Geoffrey Simon
Recorded London, 1986 (Night on the Bald Mountain) and 1992
CALA CACD 1030 [77:10]
Crotchet   AmazonUK   AmazonUS

Yet another Pictures at an Exhibition, I hear you say! Well, yes, but this is a somewhat different affair for here is (the late) Lawrence Leonard's rarely heard arrangement for piano and orchestra made in 1977. As a whole it is a quite satisfying compromise preserving most of the piano original (the opening Promenade, less spectacular than Ravel's, is for orchestra alone). In most other movements the original material is shared by piano and orchestra in a "concerto-like" manner. It would be idle to list all the differences between Lawrence's arrangement and, say, Ravel's (which is by far the most popular). However some may be singled out. For example The Old Castle dispenses with Ravel's saxophone and opts for cello and piano with soft sustaining harmonies including a suggestion of wind (wind machine or soft roll on suspended cymbals, we are not told) or Goldenberg and Schmuyle, Goldenberg being given a ponderous, pompous orchestral garment and the piano original kept for the wailing Schmuyle (quite effective indeed). Some movements may sound less impressive than in Ravel's version, e.g. Bydlo, The Catacombs or even The Great Gate of Kiev; but all in all Lawrence's arrangement is well worth having for a change from Ravel's ubiquitous version.

It has always been a cause of regret to me that Mussorgsky did not write more for orchestra for his intuitive genius would have worked wonders as, say, the original version of Boris shows. Most other pieces here have been orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov, Liadov and Stokowski whose orchestration of Galitsin's Journey (Entr'acte to Act IV of Khovantschina) is quite sober and really very fine.

I did not know Walter Goehr's orchestration of Pictures from Crimea, i.e. two piano pieces written after Mussorgsky's trip to Crimea framing an earlier piano Reverie used by Goehr for contrast's sake. Again quite successful and well worth having too.

The Dutch musician, Hans Kindler, who incidentally became first cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra under Stokowski and later founder and conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington D.C., orchestrated one of Mussorgsky's piano pieces, Une Larme written in 1880. He recorded it in 1941 as Song of Russia and published it later as Chanson Russe. Quite ably done, though a trifle.

The last item here is Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestration of Night on the Bald Mountain quite brilliantly played, as the rest of this collection, by the Philharmonia Orchestra under Geoffrey Simon, though I could not help feeling that Mussorgsky's original version might have been a better choice, just to hear his own voice for once.

All in all, a fine release of fairly well-known and loved pieces with, as a bonus, an unusual, though well worth having arrangement of Pictures at an Exhibition.

Hubert Culot

Return to Index

Reviews from previous months
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board.  Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.This is the only part of MusicWeb for which you will have to register.


You can purchase CDs, tickets and musician's accessories and Save around 22% with these retailers: