Moussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain/Pictures at an Exhibition
List Price:
Our Price: $7.40
You Save: $2.54 (25%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.99 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more new music releases
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Music CD Cover
Composer: Modest MussorgskyConductor: Lorin Maazel
Orchestra: Cleveland Orchestra
Orchestra: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Edition: Music CD
Published: 1990
CD Release Date: 1990-10-25
Music Label: Telarc
Soundtracks:
- Night On Bald Mountain - Lorin Maazel
- Pictures At An Exhibition - Lorin Maazel
Free Music Notes for Moussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain/Pictures at an Exhibition
Free Music Review: A definitive look at Lorin Maazel's capabilities.
Hit: 5 Stars
With Lorin Maazel recently installed as the music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, there arises the question "What can we expect from this relationship?"
As a partial answer to the question, I have gone through my own library of Maazel recordings, covering a period of nearly 40 years and several orchestras and labels, as well as a fairly wide range of repertoire, to select this all-Mussorgsky album as one of the finest he has done to date. The album has been in my library for nearly a quarter-century in LP form, and then the CD release was added very early in the market launch of CDs in the U.S. nearly 20 years ago. The passage of time has not diminished in the slightest either the superb performances or the equally superb sonics of this Telarc recording, made with the Cleveland Orchestra.
Maazel's relationship with the musicians of the Cleveland Orchestra was nothing if not "stormy"; as a result, his tenure there was fairly short-lived. But - in his favor - he is both a superb "orchestra builder" and a conductor not known for waywardness. (As an aside, anyone looking for a "wayward," unidiomatic performance of the Mussorgsky/Ravel "Pictures at an Exhibition" need look no further than Sergiu Celibidache's performance, on EMI, with the Munich Philharmonic. If nothing else, that Celibidache recording will provide one with an appreciation of this Maazel recording.)
Both Mussorgsky works on this recording are testimony to a number of interrelated factors: the warm acoustics of Severance Hall in Cleveland, the recording techniques of Telarc (using minmal microphone set-ups in ideal locations as pioneered by Robert Fine of Mercury Records), the muscianship of the orchestra, and the interpretive insights of Maazel. The ensemble work throughout is razor-sharp, with ultra-clean entrances and perfect balance of orchestral choirs. The recording provides a heightened sense of realism, in which the ability of Maazel to draw out the inner lines of the music is supported by the technical genius of Bob Woods and Jack Renner and their Telarc team in providing the acoustical ambience for appreciating the work of conductor and orchestra.
Nowhere is this combination made clearer than in the closing pages of "The Great Gate of Kiev" in "Pictures at an Exhibition." The final perorations of the brass choir, in the concluding coda, are simply stunning in their top-to-bottom fullness and clarity. To this day, I still marvel at the ability to hear every single instrumental line in this brass peroration; it is as if I could "focus" on any individual instrument of my choice. Surely, despite its age, this recording remains as one of the benchmarks for audio quality not soon to be surpassed.
By today's standards, this CD is rather "small measure" in terms of listening time (although it certainly wasn't in its original LP guise, or in the very earliest days of CDs). And, as much as I enjoy the Ravel transcription of "Pictures at an Exhibition," I also like to listen to both the Stokowski transcription and the Gortchakov one (the favorite of Kurt Masur, Maazel's predecessor at the NYPO) as well. But Maazel's reading of the Mussorgsky/Ravel remains the definitive one for me.
This CD is both a piece of "audio history" and a pair of stunning performances with the Cleveland Orchestra performing and sounding at its very highest level. Yes, definitely one of Maazel's best.
Bob Zeidler
Classical Music CDs
Music Genres
Top music charts in Classical Music CDs
Winterscapesby London Philharmonic
Prophetic Voice; Published: 2000-07; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $2.74
Price in other shops:
The Queen, the Bear, and the Bumblebeeby Dini Petty
Childrens Group; Published: 2001-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.40
Price in other shops:
Classical Kids - Beethoven Lives Upstairs CdrRelease date: 2000-04-05; Music CD
Best price: $25.98
Tchaikovsky (Life and Works (Naxos))by Malcolm Sinclair, Jeremy Siepmann
Naxos; Published: 2003-11; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $35.99
![Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS] Image](/images/Jose-Carreras-Jubileum-Concert-VHS-1584481471-X.jpg){kind=small}
Jose Carreras - Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS]Sling Shot; Release date: 2000-04-18; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $5.87
Price in other shops:
![Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS] Image](/images/Tchaikovsky-The-Nutcracker-Nureyev-Park-Royal-Ballet-VHS-156127092X-X.jpg){kind=small}
Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-09-09; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.94
Price in other shops:
![Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS] Image](/images/Lonely-Town-Lonley-Street-Sergeant-Early-Dream-VHS-1561270857-X.jpg){kind=small}
Rambert Dance Company - Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-10-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $24.99
Price in other shops:
Winter Music: Composing the Northby John Luther Adams
Wesleyan; Published: 2004-11-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $23.62
Price in other shops:
![Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] Image](/images/Puccini-La-Fanciulla-del-West-Santi-Domingo-Neblett-Royal-Opera-Covent-Garden-VHS-0769720382-X.jpg){kind=small}
Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] Image](/images/Verdi-Falstaff-Giulini-Bruson-Ricciarelli-Nucci-Royal-Opera-Covent-Garden-VHS-0769720358-X.jpg){kind=small}
Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $12.95
Price in other shops:
Top Rated Albums
William Tell & Other Favorite OverturesRelease date: 1990-10-25; Music CD
Best price: $6.06
Price in other shops:
Copland: Appalachian Spring; Rodeo; Fanfare for the Common ManRelease date: 1990-10-25; Music CD
Best price: $4.86
Price in other shops:
Richard Strauss : Also Sprach Zarathustra / Previn, Vienna PORelease date: 2002-04-23; Music CD
Best price: $5.54
Price in other shops:
Gershwin: Rhapsody In Blue / An American In ParisRelease date: 1990-10-25; Music CD
Best price: $4.43
Price in other shops:
Holst: The PlanetsRelease date: 2007-07-10; Music CD
Best price: $6.73
Price in other shops:
Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 "From the New World"Release date: 1990-10-25; Music CD
Best price: $11.42
Price in other shops:
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade/ Capriccio EspagnolRelease date: 1990-06-25; Music CD
Best price: $10.82
Price in other shops:
Tchaikovsky: 1812; Capriccio Italien; Cossack DanceRelease date: 1990-10-25; Published: 1990; Music CD
Best price: $1.99
Price in other shops:
Gustav Holst: The Planets, Op 32Release date: 1990-10-25; Music CD
Best price: $11.50
Price in other shops:
Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite; Borodin: Music from Prince IgorRelease date: 1990-10-25; Published: 1990; Music CD
Best price: $6.20
Price in other shops: