Search - Alexander Borodin, Modest Mussorgsky, Simon Rattle :: Mussorgsky: Bilder Einer Ausstellung; Borodin: Sinfonie Nr. 2; Polowetzer Tänze

Skillfully un-Russian

Kostas A. Lavdas | Boston, MA USA | 03/17/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a performance that does more justice to Ravel's orchestral arrangement than the Russian underneath. Mussorgsky's work, originally composed for piano and dedicated to his friend, the artist Viktor Hartmann, has become such a showcase of orchestral brilliance in Ravel's celebrated version that one tends to forget the musical ideas and the intended atmosphere. At the same time, Pictures at an Exhibition is a work boasting so many good recordings that one has difficulty deciding which to recommend. Rattle's reading, alert and sophisticated, results in some of the suite's movements being played with both skill and sensitivity, as in the wonderful vecchio castello.



Borodin's emblematic Second symphony gets a reading which is more in touch with the score's spirit. But in this case it is the orchestra's sound and playing that appear a bit too pop and light for the occasion. In recent years, the Berlin Philharmonic has become just one among today's great orchestras: leaner textures, technical brilliance and no relation to the Berlin sound forged by Karajan and so skilfully transformed by Abbado. Apart from being fashionable today, this sound serves them well in some instances (their recent Mahler as well as their Debussy recordings are stellar), but it makes it less easy to recognise an ensemble once distinguished by characteristic sound and playing (too characteristic for some).



To sum up: Predictably, given the maestro-orchestra combination, this is an excellent disc. And the coupling is fine, not to mention a sleek account of the Polovtsian Dances coming as a bonus! But I would still rather recommend Giulini's Chicago Symphony recording for the orchestral version of the Pictures (DG) and - despite its technical imperfections - Kubelik's heartfelt Vienna Philharmonic recording for Borodin's Second (EMI).



"

Fine Recording, But Sounds More Romantic Than Russian

John Kwok | New York, NY USA | 06/27/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Ravel orchestration of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" is one which has been the subject of many recordings, of which a superb one is Giulini's classic recording with the Chicago Symphony (He later recorded it again with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra which I also highly recommend.). Rattle's interpretation is a fine, superbly well-played account, but, however, one that stresses too much the Romantic qualities of Ravel's orchestration, while forsaking the "Russian" atmosphere of Mussorgsky's ideas. The same can be said too of both of the Borodin works which are part of this CD; both are played at slightly slower tempi than I've expected (Especially the Polovetsian Dances, which I had heard performed live earlier this year in a breathtaking performance courtesy of conductor Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra.). Rattle doesn't quite grasp the nuances of Borodin's score of the 2nd Symphony as much as the late Kirill Kondrashin did in his superb interpretation with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra dating from the late 1970s (A recording that's been reissued in a couple of different packages by Philips recently.).



The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra sounds great, but there's nothing in this recording that distinguishes it from, for example, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Lorin Maazel's baton or either the London Symphony or the Chicago Symphony under the baton of Bernard Haitink's. As such it is an ensemble that has lost some of the special musical luster it acquired during the music directorships of Herbert von Karajan and Claudio Abbado; its own distinctive Central European sound of winds, brass and strings isn't quite as distinctive as it once was."