Mariss Jansons, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra - Mussorgsky: Pictures At An Exhibition (2009) [SACD]

In this day & age, a compact disc with a playing time of 33:02 is more than a tad short, but what is here is stunning: an account of Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition that reveals the grandeur of the music in a performance of tremendous vitality & a recording of stupendous immediacy. Mariss Jansons finds things in this well-known score that most conductors miss — details of articulation, phrasing & balance that often go unnoted — & brings out the work’s enormous variety of forms, moods, & colors. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam plays with its accustomed super virtuosity, reveling in overcoming the score’s prodigious challenges with effortless panache. RCO Live’s super audio recording captures everything in sound that puts the listener in the Concertgebouw about 10 rows back from the stage. But, really, only 33:02? Why not more Ravel or more Mussorgsky, a bit of Borodin or a slice of Stravinsky? What’s here is inestimable, but it leaves the listener eager for more.


Tracks:

01 Promenade 1:38
02 Gnomus 2:48
03 Promenade 0:59
04 Il vecchio castello 4:27
05 Promenade 0:31
06 Tuileries 1:05
07 Bydlo 2:46
08 Promenade 0:46
09 Ballet des poussins dans leurs coques 1:14
10 Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuyle 2:33
11 Limoges, le marchй 1:23
12 Catacombae, sepulchrum Romanum 2:09
13 Cum mortuis in lingua mortua 2:05
14 La cabane sur des pattes de poule 3:28
15 Le grande porte de Kiev 5:09

Personnel:

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Mariss Jansons (conductor)