Mussorgsky Works for Orchestra

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Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Modest Mussorgsky

Label: Red Seal

Magazine Review Date: 10/1997

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 71

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 09026 68406-2

Tracks:

Composition	Artist Credit
Boris Godunov, Movement: ~	Modest Mussorgsky, Composer Evgeni Svetlanov, Conductor Modest Mussorgsky, Composer Russian State Symphony Orchestra
Khovanshchina, Movement: Dance of the Persian Slave Girls	Modest Mussorgsky, Composer Evgeni Svetlanov, Conductor Modest Mussorgsky, Composer Russian State Symphony Orchestra
Khovanshchina, Movement: Intermezzo	Modest Mussorgsky, Composer Evgeni Svetlanov, Conductor Modest Mussorgsky, Composer Russian State Symphony Orchestra
Khovanshchina, Movement: The departure of Prince Golitsïn	Modest Mussorgsky, Composer Evgeni Svetlanov, Conductor Modest Mussorgsky, Composer Russian State Symphony Orchestra
(The) Fair at Sorochintsï, 'Sorochinskaya yarmar, Movement: ~	Modest Mussorgsky, Composer Evgeni Svetlanov, Conductor Modest Mussorgsky, Composer Russian State Symphony Orchestra
(The) Fair at Sorochintsï, 'Sorochinskaya yarmar, Movement: Overture	Modest Mussorgsky, Composer Evgeni Svetlanov, Conductor Modest Mussorgsky, Composer Russian State Symphony Orchestra
(The) Fair at Sorochintsï, 'Sorochinskaya yarmar, Movement: Gopak of the Merry Lads	Modest Mussorgsky, Composer Evgeni Svetlanov, Conductor Modest Mussorgsky, Composer Russian State Symphony Orchestra
Scherzo	Modest Mussorgsky, Composer Evgeni Svetlanov, Conductor Modest Mussorgsky, Composer Russian State Symphony Orchestra
Intermezzo "in modo classico"	Modest Mussorgsky, Composer Evgeni Svetlanov, Conductor Modest Mussorgsky, Composer Russian State Symphony Orchestra
Sunless	Modest Mussorgsky, Composer Evgeni Svetlanov, Conductor Modest Mussorgsky, Composer Natalia Gerasimova, Soprano Russian State Symphony Orchestra

Author:

Mussorgsky by name, but not necessarily by nature. Virtually everything on this musically varied CD has been orchestrated by another hand. The Schumannesque B flat Scherzo and robust Intermezzo “in modo classico” are both “arranged and orchestrated” by Rimsky-Korsakov, as is the boisterous “Introduction and Polonaise” from Boris Godunov.
Svetlanov’s performances are unforced and malleable, while the recordings – taped at L’Arsenal, Metz, France during July 1994 and produced by James Mallinson – have considerable impact. The double-basses at the start of Khovanshchina’s Entr’acte (Act 4 scene 2) are virtually tangible, although I did wonder whether Svetlanov’s chosen tempo was just a mite slow for a sound-portrait of Count Golitsin being “led away to exile in a rumbling carriage” (I quote David Wright’s useful notes).
The “Dance of the Persian Women” is very much ‘pre-Polovtsi’ and I was taken with Liadov’s felicitous orchestrations of music from Sorochinsky Fair, the Overture and “Gopak” specifically. Again the performances are nicely judged and Natalia Gerasimova – a stylish, brittle-voiced soprano with a pronounced Slavic vibrato – gives a winning account of Parassia’s schizoid “Dumka”. However, for me, the disc’s highlight is Svetlanov’s sensitive orchestration of the Sunless cycle. Here Gerasimova tames her exuberance for an appropriately inward performance, and the recording keeps her in perfect aural perspective with the orchestra. The first and fourth songs are scored for strings, the second for woodwind, the third for brass and woodwind, whereas the fifth makes economical use of larger forces (including percussion) and the sixth – “On the river” – recalls the world of Rachmaninov’s The isle of the dead. Svetlanov’s mastery of mood and texture suggests active parallels with the superb Mussorgsky orchestrations of Shostakovich and Markevitch, and the recordings are excellent.
A fine disc, then, with the songs as the dominant attraction. As to the orchestral items, I shan’t disguise a certain nostalgia for the ‘Svetlanov of old’, where the heart sometimes ruled the head and orchestral excitement was very much the order of the day. Still, the musicianship is still intact, the orchestra better laid-out than it used to be (nowadays Svetlanov divides his violins left and right of the rostrum and has his double-basses on the left) and the sound is uniformly first-rate. There are no full texts for the vocal items, just English synopses.'