MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW Plain text for smartphones & printers

Support us financially by purchasing this from

Modest MUSSORGSKY (1839-1881)
Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel) [32:12]
Night on Bald Mountain [11:22]
Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
Waltz from Swan Lake [7:00]
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Gustavo Dudamel
rec. April 2016, Musikverein, Grosser Saal, Vienna
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 479 6297 [50:51]

A mere fifty minutes’ worth from Dudamel and the VPO here; should we quibble? Well yes; there is plenty of room for another substantial work in place of the two attractive but lightweight fillers. So nuls points for DG on that basis. And while we’re at it, another annoyance; this version of ‘Pictures’ is of course the one orchestrated by Ravel, easily the best available. Mussorgsky never orchestrated the work himself, so it’s absolutely vital that this is made clear in the labelling. Sadly, you have to look through the small print inside the booklet to find any mention of the French composer’s name. That’s not just careless, it’s downright unethical.

But what about the performances? We have come to expect pretty sensational stuff from Dudamel – his Mahler 7 last year was, for me, revelatory. His ‘Pictures’, while enjoyable and vivid, don’t quite come up to that standard. It may have been his relationship with the orchestra, but there is a lack of charm and playfulness in the lighter numbers. The penultimate picture, ‘The Hut on Chicken’s Legs (Baba-Yaga) is just too slow. Mussorgsky’s indication is Allegro con brio, feroce, and the ponderous tempo rules out any true ferocity. That same heaviness continues into the finale, ‘The Great Gate of Kiev’, where the magnificence of the brass chorale is undermined by the clumsy phrasing of the melody. On the other hand, the orchestral playing (bassoon and alto saxophone) is exquisite in ‘The Old Castle’, and the powerful portrait of the two Jews, ‘Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle’ is superbly done. So not a ‘vintage’ Pictures, but worth hearing nonetheless. ‘Night on Bald Mountain’ (I much prefer the English title ‘Night on the Bare Mountain’) is exciting, but the peaceful coda is spoilt by some underwhelming solos from clarinet and flute, with even some dodgy tuning – not what we expect from the VPO. Tchaikovsky’s wonderful waltz from ‘Swan Lake’ completes the disc with a flourish.

A slightly disappointing disc then, despite the excellent sound quality but for those who get beyond Dudamel’s portentous (to say the least) statement reproduced on the back cover of the disc, there is much to admire and enjoy. However, it doesn’t displace those Golden Oldies of Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra on Sony, or indeed Reiner and the Chicago forces on RCA. Recent recordings are, surprisingly, relatively few and far between; but Theodore Kuchar’s reading with the Ukraine Philharmonic on Naxos conveys the spirit of the whole work brilliantly, and has the added bonus of two versions of ‘Night on the Bare Mountain’ – Rimsky’s, as on the present disc, and the startling original.

Gwyn Parry-Jones

Previous review: Dan Morgan

 

 



Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing