Search - Mussorgsky, Markevich :: Pictures at an Exhibition

An outstanding performance !

Hiram Gomez Pardo | Valencia, Venezuela | 10/11/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First at all, let me express you some particular ideas about my conception around this work . The Pictures is an Elegy a painful homage to a dead frien , the last farewell to his beloved friend Víctor Hartmann.

That was the composer intention when he wrothe for piano solo .

But years after Maurice Ravel would would arrange the score for orchetsr with the results we know .

The central aspect of the question turns around the fireworks that usually are part of this work.

Fortunately to us , Markevitch and the Gewandhaus of Leizpig in this 1973 performance made a superb reading which surprisingly ran in the same direction I just always had expected in this sense .

Deeply dramatic,and carefully worked with the word Elegy through all the sketches , Markevitch never gave a smile even in the most funny episodies of the Pictures .

And believe me ; I have acquired Toscanini , Dorati , Paray , Cantelli , Kossevitzki and nobody else with the glorious exception of Giulini - Chicago recording have given the highlights purposes of Modest Moussorgsky .

Try to get that curious and interesting performance ."