Moussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain/Pictures at an Exhibition

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
This was one of the recordings that put Telarc on the musical map, and first revealed the potential of digital recording technology to millions of music lovers and stereo buffs. It's still one of the very finest recordings of "Pictures" around, both as sound and performance. Lorin Maazel maintained the high standards of execution that George Szell inculcated during his quarter century in Cleveland, and for sheer hair-trigger precision, the playing is simply unbeatable. In addition, Telarc captured the performance in what was then and remains demonstration-quality sound, with the famous bass drum thwacks putting a practically subsonic foundation on the whole enterprise. Still a classic. --David Hurwitz

Tracks:

Night On Bald Mountain
Pictures At An Exhibition

Amazon.com essential recording

This was one of the recordings that put Telarc on the musical map, and first revealed the potential of digital recording technology to millions of music lovers and stereo buffs. It's still one of the very finest recordings of "Pictures" around, both as sound and performance. Lorin Maazel maintained the high standards of execution that George Szell inculcated during his quarter century in Cleveland, and for sheer hair-trigger precision, the playing is simply unbeatable. In addition, Telarc captured the performance in what was then and remains demonstration-quality sound, with the famous bass drum thwacks putting a practically subsonic foundation on the whole enterprise. Still a classic. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews:

This CD sucks!.......2006-03-05

I regret buying this CD. I thought it would be a great CD after reading all the rave reviews in Amazon. I bought it because Maazel is coming to Kuala Lumpur to conduct the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and "Pictures at an Exhition" is part of the programme.

First off, it is very much overpriced. All in, there is less than 41 minutes of music and the CD is thus very expensive (what do you expect from the TELEARC label?).

Secondly, you cannot really visualize all the different "pictures". This piece, the main piece, which is about 30 minutes long, lacks precision and energy, and sounds boring.

Conclusion:

Don't buy this CD.

Get the one by George Szell conducting the Cleveland Orchestra from Sony Classical's Essential Classics series. Total time here is 73.44 minutes. Szell is precise and energetic. Unlike Maazel's CD, where all the pictures are lumped into one track (you cannot jump from one picture to another), the pictures in this CD are all on different tracks. In addition, it includes Zoltan Kodaly's Hary Janos Suite (an interesting piece of music) as well as Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kije Suite. All the pieces were very well played. And it's dirt cheap.

I have no vested interests. Don't be a fool like me. Get Szell if you want a better "Pictures at an Exhition" CD.

VERY GOOD.......2005-10-14

Sorry for my very bad english i'm a person from SPAIN (Europe). I have about of 32 discs of this compositor and of course of this tittle, I believe that the offer from TELARC is a copy that the old
direct to disc record in vinyl (I'm a affortunetly man that I have it). Anyway super the disc (it is one os my prefers). Congratulations to TELARC.

Glorious Russian Masterpiece.......2005-09-28

The Telarc label should feel indebted to this particular recording, for that label became famous because of it. Lorin Maazel conducting the Cleveland Orchestra is masterful and strong, bringing out the Russian fire and majesty in this work. Moussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain and Pictures At An Exhibition is his best work and are popular concert pieces. On this recording, the music is bursting with life and richness. Moussorgsky's music was heavily criticized by his contemporary, the more elegant and romantically inclined Tchaikovsky, who dubbed his music, "brutal and ugly". But even Tchaikovsky had to concede that Pictures at an Exhibition was beautiful. The Great Gate At Kiev, with its regal, sonorous trumpet section and stirring string section, is among his most beautiful pieces ever. The famous Night on Bald Mountain is best remembered for its prominent use in Walt Disney's 1940 film Fantasia, in the last segment in which ghouls, ghosts and spirits come to dance on top of the Russian mountain with a great winged Devil. Their revelry is interrupted by the cracking of dawn. This music is primal, frightening and compelling. Maestro Lorin Maazel is still an active conductor eventhough he is quite old (80's ? 90's ?)and conducts music at Lincoln Center in New York City frequently. Maazel's orchestration of this work is expert and unsurpassed. His famous temper has subsided of course but it was his moods and perfectionism that got him in trouble with the Cleveland Orchestra (still one of America's finest orchestras) but he was supplanted by an even more noteworthy conductor that shaped the orchestra to what it is today- the famous Geoge Szell. But Maazel's musical genius is evident in every part of this music. I highly recommend this recording for serious fans of classical music.

The Mightiest of the Handful!.......2004-11-24

I'll not repeat any of the high-brow aspects that all the other reviewers have written. Good on 'em, I say! I first heard this piece as a young musician. It has been a favorite all my life.

Pictures at an Exhibition, even after Rimsky-Korsakov re-arranged it, is simply wonderful. Don't be put off by all the pretention of some reviewers. Listen to the tracks. If the piece does not move you deep in your soul, you may be in dire need of spiritual and/or medical attention.

What else is there to say?.......2004-07-04

What is that saying? Oh, yeah: "Everything that can be said has been said. It just hasn't been said by everyone yet."

This was the first CD I bought. In fact, I bought it a couple of years before I was finally able to buy my first CD player (they were really expensive).

I was a stereo salesman in those bygone days. I've always felt I owed Maazel, Telarc, the Cleveland Orchestra, et al, a commission for all the money I made simply playing this recording for my custoemrs and shutting up.

And now more than a quarter century has gone by. I no longer sell stereo equipment (thank God), CD players cost about the same as a two Big Macs, the world has fallen apart and been patched back together so many times I've lost count, and this is still the best damned reason for digital stereo I've ever heard.

Tracks:

Night On Bald Mountain (Orch. Rimsky-Korsakov)
Pictures At An Exhibition (Orch. Ravel)
Introduction To Khovanshchina (Dawn On The Moscow River)

Customer Reviews:

A Great Picture of Atlanta.......2007-01-09

So far, I have only listened to the Pictures at an Exhibition (PaaE) tracks which is the whole reason I bought this CD. This may not be the most popular recording of PaaE, but it's the Atlanta Symphony Orchesra's (ASO) only available version on CD to my knowledge. Playing tuba in the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra ('82-'83) gave me a completely new perspective on the ASO and how a professional orchestra works. I still think the best seats in the house at the Atlanta Symphony Hall are downstairs in their Green Room or Green Lobby, as the case may be. I own both a recording of The Planets by Gustav Holst performed by Charles Dutoit, and Montréal Symphony Orchestra (1987), where Mars sounds like a ballet and another recording by Sir Adrian Boult, The New Philharmonia Orchestra, and The Ambrosian Singers which I can't find on CD. The ASO recording is "far and away" the best recording of the three followed closely by the Sir Adrian Boult offering in my honest opinion (IMHO).

Virtuoso to the Extreme!.......2004-03-06

Mussorgsky's revolutionary music comes brilliantly alive in what has to be the most intense recording of PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION available. The orchestrated version is performed with feeling and energy rarely heard. The final two movements especially evoke terror and grandeur with an outstanding wind section and the best timpani performance I have ever heard. A triumph of a recording of the music of a great but misunderstood genius.

The Great Gate of Kiev plus the great sound of the ASO!!!.......2002-10-09

This is a great recording with the ASO demonstrating it's maximum amount of horsepower in the "Pictures"!! It's totally a bombastic performance!!! I remember playing this (The Great Gate) in my high school band some 42 years ago--that's when I fell in love with this work (however, I wasn't familiar with the complete composition). I was very impressed with the woodwinds and brass in the orchestra. From beginning to end, this work is in top form! I've heard Jansons/Oslo Philharmonic, Leaper/RPO, Schwarz/Seattle Symphony, Ormandy/Philadelphia Orchestra, Karajan/Berlin Philharmonic and others but this is the best (to me) HANDS DOWN!! The "Night on Bald Mountain is equally satisfying and so is the "Khovonshchina". Another winner here for Levi and the ASO!