Saturday, January 29, 2011

Sunday Classics preview: Preparing to conclude our walk-through of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition"

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Here's how it all turns out in the Emerson, Lake & Palmer rendering.

by Ken

Last week we began our walking tour through Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, the suite of miniature pieces the composer imagined for solo piano depicting an exhibition of "pictures" by his late friend, the architect and artist Viktor Hartmann.

Since we pick up with "picture" No. 6, a musical amalgamation of Hartmann pencil drawings of two Polish Jews, I thought that for our preview we would start there and jump to the final "picture," the magisterial "Great Gate of Kiev." Here, by the way, is how "The Great Gate" sounds in a suitably grand performance of the Ravel orchestral version, with Stuart Stratford conducting the London Philharmonic, from a "FUNharmonic Family Concert" in London's Royal Festival Hall, February 2008.




TO CONTINUE WITH OUR PREVIEW OF THE
SECOND HALF OF PICTURES, CLICK HERE.

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3 Comments:

At 11:08 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

We can certainly do without the Emerson Lakes and Palmer rendition.

 
At 2:54 PM, Blogger KenInNY said...

I probably ought to apologize for including it, Anon, but I have appallingly little shame.

Cheers,
Ken

 
At 11:18 PM, Anonymous Jeff said...

Eh--no need to apologize for the ELP. Not their greatest moment, but fun enough on its own terms, and an honest attempt to raise the audience's taste. Kinda like ELP in general--an effort which sometimes pays off very well indeed, in fact, despite being (at least in post-punk terms) possibly the least socially correct major rock band ever.

 

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