| Site review by Castor September 13, 2005
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Performance: Sonics (MC): |
Stokowski’s colourful and idiosyncratic transcriptions of Mussorgsky’s music are wonderfully realised here.
Serebrier’s performances, and the Naxos recording, put the almost identical programme by Matthias Bamert on Chandos RBCD in the shade.
Deep bells, crashing tam-tams and col legno string effects all make a tremendous impact from the opening of Night on a Bare Mountain to the end of Pictures at an Exhibition.
Serebrier told the Bournemouth SO that he was not intent on copying Stokowski’s own recordings of these pieces but wished to approach them from a fresh perspective. This is exactly what he has done and I think that the results are electrifying.
Stokowski’s orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition will never overtake in popularity that done by Ravel, not least because Stokowski omits two movements of the original (Tuileries and The Market place at Limoges) as being possibly too French, but it has a character of its own and I can’t imagine it being better done than here.
The transcriptions of the two Tchaikovsky pieces and Stokowski’s own Traditional Christmas Slavic Music complete a most enjoyable programme.
The recording is rich, but clear, with plenty of ambient information from the rear channels. I found the sound to be cleaner than that on the Naxos Bartok/Marin Alsop SACD recorded in the same venue.
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Copyright © 2005 Graham Williams and SA-CD.net
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| Site review by Polly Nomial March 2, 2006
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Performance: Sonics (S/MC): / |
This is a fascinating companion to Naxos' other Mussorgsky SACD (Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition, Night on the Bare Mountain - Kuchar); I strongly urge that people obtain both - this is a very good performance of Stokowski's thoughts but I would never want to be without Mussorgsky's own version of Night on the Bare Mountain or Ravel's orchestration of Pictures.
Like the alternative disc, A Night on Bare Mountain opens the work. In the notes (unusually good for Naxos - presumably because Serebrier himself wrote them), it is claimed that Stokowski tried to marry the material the Rimsky-Korsakov used in his famous version with Mussorgsky's style of orchestration. I agree (in general) that the structure owes much to R-K but it is a little fanciful to concur with the second part of the claim! It is however very interesting if not supplanting either of the more traditional orchestrations. Stokowski's treatment of the Entr'acte to Act IV of Khovanshchina is altogether more stylistic - at no time does the orchestration distract from the desolate and depressing mood of Mussorgsky's horrifying composition.
The second major piece on this generously filled disc (nearly 77 minutes) is Stokowski's Symphonic Synthesis of Boris Godunov; the synthesis was composed for similar reasons to Liszt's operatic transcriptions - bringing great music to people who wouldn't otherwise sit through or be able to hear an entire opera (especially one in Russian). It is truly of comparison with Liszt's efforts, if not better than them as they (by remaining orchestral and only losing the voices) remain more faithful to the original conceptions. All the major parts of the opera are represented and dramatically realised by both Stokowski and the BSO under Serebrier - the BSO sound so different to when they were forced to play the excreable Christmas disc under Breiner; as well they might!
We then come to the main work, Stokowski's orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition - which, despite the magician's best efforts, ironically sounds more French here than on the companion disc of Ravel's orchestration at times! Throughout the BSO play very well under Serebrier - although, here the playing is not of the same quality that Knussen managed with the Cleveland SO on DG (RBCD only). Some pictures are slightly lacking in verve due to the complex orchestration that makes it very hard to render at speeds that Ravel's version permits (especially the Ballet - track 10).
To end, we are given three small pieces (two from Tchaikovsky, one of Stokowski's own) which are, in common with all pieces on this disc, played with character and grace.
The recording is very different to its companion with a great deal more sound from the rears (a little too much for my liking but not particularly distracting) and altogether less dry. Recommended in addition to the "straight" Mussorgsky companion.
(Purchased)
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Copyright © 2006 John Broggio and SA-CD.net
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| Review by Coffee Kev October 21, 2005 (8 of 8 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics (S): |
Recordings like this are what consumers need to hear if SACD is every going to succeed. It is stellar in every way.
Stokowski is a hard conductor to emulate because his personality is so large. Few conductors come close. Serebrier appears to be cut of the same cloth. Instead of trying to impersonate Stokowski, he appears to conduct from his own bravura, so there is no self-conciousness. It makes me wish we had him here in Chicago, as our low key Barenboim is near retirement. The recording succeeds for this reason alone.
But, wait, there's more...
The sound is nearly perfect. I can't think of another SACD that so fulfills the medium's promise. The sound is huge! The bass whacks hit you in the gut, just like they would in concert. The strings, already sweetened by the free bowing and lush writing, are sweeter than you've ever heard in redbook. The dynamic range is awesome. The bells and other novel instruments Stokowski arranged in this Russian music are all nicely recorded. I can think of no other medium, digital or analog, that would reproduce them as well.
Stokowski's own recordings are not this good.
The music is great. The performance is great. The sound it great.
If I wanted to convince a friend who doesn't like classical music to understand why I do, I'd play this disc for him.
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| Review by Arthur May 15, 2006 (3 of 3 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics (S): |
I was never a big Stokowski fan: I disliked the gimickry. But I remember hearing his Symphonic Synthesis from Boris over the radio in my teens and I enjoyed it immensely. But a single listening to his Pictures many years ago was disappointing. So while I was interested in this disc for the Synthesis and for Serebrier whose conducting I like, I had continually found a reason to pass on it.
But at my local Tower Records I was told it was being deleted, so I decided to take the plunge.
I shouldn't have waited so long: this disc is a total success!
The Synthesis is everything I remembered, only better: great sound, no ridiculous spotlighting ala Stoky himself, and straight but cultured interpretation. But the big winner for me was the Pictures! Wow! I'd always loved the piano version but been ambivalent about the Ravel orchestration. But this version is great: for once this is a Russian work, not some sort of cosmopolitan mish-mash.
To top it all off the transcription of the Tchaikovsky song "Solitude" is wonderful. I'd love to encounter this as an encore sometime topping off an evening of Russian rousers!
Get it fast. Evidently it's going to be gone.
(PS. I've only listened in 2-channel as my living room is torn apart.)
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