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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Better than many other recordings, 27 Dec 2004
Belive it or not, looking for very good performance of such known composition is not easy in this case. Mussorgsky's "Pictures" are quite simple music (instrumentally - I mean an orchestral version, Ravel's orchestration), in most parts only few intruments do play together, so every mistake is very obvious. The other aspect of that "simplicity" is, that "Pictures" need an extra attention and concern from conudctor, to be performed as a story-telling music. In every other case, only boring result, comes out.This performance is, fortunately, the first case. Note: Generally, I am NOT favourer of Wiener Philharmoniker, because I find their playing often inaccurate (especially in brass and woodwind sections), as I do not like their typical sound of putting on (starting to play) violins - I find it too harsh for such (over)famed orchestra. The violins section has also problems with extra swift parts on number of recordings... well, back to this CD. What I wrote above, applies to it only minimally (what a surprise). But what makes the CD rare, is Gergiev's reading of "Pictures". He did very sensitive job, "Il Vecchio Castello" is so lyrical, that words cannot describe it, as is "Bydlo". But he also did not miss cheerful elements of "Tuileries", "Ballet" and "Limoges". For every single piece, he is getting proper playing from orchestra. The last two pieces, "La Cabane" and "Grande Porte" are performed with necessary solemnity and heaviness AND in regular tempi (which is often missing in other recordings - for example Polyansky's "Grane Porte" (Great Gate) on recording of Chandos with Russian State Symphony Orchestra, sounds like funeral march and totally lacks atmosphere). So once again, in capturing moods and spirit of every single part of "Pictures", this recording is truly outstanding. The same applies to other recorded compostions, especially to "Night on Bare Mountain", which is here performed with unusual ferocity and bravery. Also Wiener Philharmoniker accomplished extraordinary good playing, so why only four stars? Because of Philips. I do not why, but even their most recent recordings sounds often unclear, noisy, not well ballanced and sometimes posses unacceptably high level of background noise (if you do not belive, try some of Philips's recordings of russian operas with maestro Gergiev). This recording is affected only by few of "Philips effects" - the sound of all strings except violins is noisy and recored poorly, as are some of larger orchestral parts. This is only little warning, I found myself familiar with this recording, despite of what I wrote above.
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~ Berliner Philharmoniker
~ London Symphony Orchestra
~ Wiener Philharmoniker
~ Gustav Mahler
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