Mussorgsky: St. John's Night on the Bare Mountain, Etc

No work of Mussorgsky�s � even Mussorgsky�s � has a more tangled history than St John�s Night on the Bare Mountain, and the complexities are reflected in its recordings. A long and tortuous story must be cut short. In 1860, Mussorgsky told Balakirev that he planned a piece �on Mengden�s drama The Witches� (no one ever seems to have found a copy of this mysterious work). Rimsky-Korsakov, whose memory was not always reliable, claims in My Musical Life that in 1866-7 he had heard a version for piano and orchestra based on Liszt�s Totentanz (which Mussorgsky would not then have known). However, in 1867 Mussorgsky did write the orchestral Bare Mountain (which was first recorded by David Lloyd-Jones with the LPO for Philips, 6/72 � nla), but, 

dismayed by Balakirev�s withering comments, shelved it. Then, to the opera-ballet Mlada, commissioned in collaboration with Rimsky-Korsakov, Cui and Borodin, he contributed a scene, based on the orchestral piece and now lost, sometimes known as �The Sabbath of the Black Goat�.

This he adapted for the never-to-be-finished opera Sorochintsy Fair, for chorus and orchestra, as �The Young Peasant�s Dream� (or �Gritsko�s Dream�). Despite the title given it on the record (as above), it is this operatic vocal and choral scene which is here recorded. Based on it, Rimsky-Korsakov made the orchestral transcription which has been so widely performed and recorded (a good 50 recordings currently available). There is more to it than that; but all that need be added here is that there have been various versions of the opera: Cui (1917) and Tcherepnin (1923) took a hand, but the best known performing score is by Shebalin (1931), and his is the version of the Dream Scenes recorded by Zdenek Macal and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (Delos, 11/97). Further versions of the orchestral work that can be heard on record include those by Rene Leibowitz and, famously, Stokowski; there are others which depart in one way or another from Rimsky-Korsakov.

Abbado is a fine Mussorgsky conductor, as admirers of his Boris Godunov (Sony, 5/94) and Khovanshchina (DG, 11/90) know. He gives the piece a formidable charge of energy here, a quality less hectic and exhilarating than Macal but strong, potent and dynamic. It is a powerful piece, especially in the original operatic scene rather than in the more appealing Rimsky-Korsakov orchestral guise which we know so well. He also gives a gentle, evocative performance of the Khovanshchina Prelude depicting dawn over the River Moscow, and accompanies his singers well in the two scenes from the opera, with Kotcherga a gloomy Shaklovity and Tarasova powerfully conjuring up the spirits of darkness in one of Mussorgsky�s greatest arias. There is also a lively performance of the dance, and a vivid one of the Intermezzo which Mussorgsky half-pretended was symphonic but was really a lively response to a scene he witnessed of some peasants blundering through the snow. His imagination was always pictorial and dramatic rather than symphonic. --Gramophone Magazine

Mussorgsky: Pictures At An Exhibition, Night on Bald Mountain, Choral Works

With scintillating virtuosity in Pictures and Abbado bringing out the Russian color in the gloriously sung choral works, there is nothing routine about anything here.

Abbado has recorded all this music before, but the new live DG recording is even more spectacular, especially in St John's Night on the Bare Mountain, the original version of Night on the Bare Mountain. Arthur Jacobs, who here provides the illuminating notes, suggests that the American word 'bald' is more faithful to the Russian than our term, 'bare'. Here it certainly brings vividly graphic orchestral playing. Abbado obviously relishes the odd grotesque spurts of colour from the woodwind, and the Mussorgskian ruggedness.

The composer's structural clumsiness is not shirked and the lack of the smooth continuity found in the Rimsky arrangement does not impede the sense of forward momentum; indeed at the close the Russian dance element is emphasized, rather than the sinister pictorialism. (Of course the luscious slow ending is not here at all--that was added by Rimsky.)

The choral pieces are gloriously sung and again Abbado brings out their Russian colour, especially in the glowing yet sinuous "Chorus of priestesses". Joshua is made to seem a minor masterpiece with its lusty opening (hints of Borodin's Polovtsians) and its touching central solo ("The amorite women weep"). This is most eloquently sung by Elena Zaremba and the theme is then movingly taken up first by the women of the chorus and then the men, before the exultant music returns. The performance of Pictures at an Exhibition, like the choral items, gains from the spacious ambience and sumptuous overall textures. It is not, perhaps, an electrifying performance, but it is dramatic in its contrasts and very beautifully played. The refinement and colour of the evocation, so characteristic of Abbado, is most touching in "The old castle", while "Tuileries" is gently evoked with a flexibly fluid control of tempo. "Bydlo" opens and closes mournfully, yet reaches a strong, positive immediacy as it finally comes close. The chicks dance with dainty lightness; then the hugely weighty lower orchestral tutti and bleating trumpet response of "Samuel Goldenberg" demonstrate the extraordinary range of tone this great orchestra can command.

After the scintillating virtuosity of "Market Place at Limoges" the sonorous Berlin brass makes a tremendous impact in "Catacombe" and Abbado's tonal and dynamic graduations are characteristically astute; then 'following a ferociously rhythmic "Baba-jaga" he steadily builds his three-dimensional "Great Gate at Kiev", losing none of the grandeur of the gentle contrasts of the intoned chorale, with the tam-tam splashes at the end satisfyingly finalizing the effect. A most enjoyable concert: there is nothing routine about anything here.

-- Gramophone [2/1995]

Tchaikovsky & Mussorgsky: Symphony No. 2 'Little Russian', Pictures at an Exhibition

�The Musorgsky pieces are superbly performed...Bare Mountain's hair-raising opening sounding genuinely menacing rather than brash, and every cackle of the witches as impersonated by strings and woodwind brought to vivid life. Pictures, too, is a triumph, with Ravel's orchestration telling in every vignette.� --BBC Music Magazine, February 2012 *****

Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice - March 2012

�If there's a single distinguishing feature of this generously filled disc it's Karabits's determination to convey the grass-roots spirit of the themes which breathe life into these pieces...Characteristically, he is more mindful of the pianistic cragginess of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition than of Ravel's finesse...Karabits is big-boned and earthy, and positively encourages coarser-grained sonorities from his Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.� --Gramophone Magazine, March 2012

�Karabits encourages the players to dig deep into the music, pounding out the rhythms sturdily, in the Tchaikovsky especially, rather than bustling ahead nervously. At 82 minutes this is a generous, as well as an enjoyable CD.� --The Observer, 30th October 2011

�Strong rhythmic definition, clarity of orchestral texture and firmly controlled impetus give the Tchaikovsky a definite boost. Karabits coaxes a ripe, full sound from the Bournemouth players and encourages broad bowings from the strings that add weight to the sonority. Equally he allows for individual instrumental colours to tell..Karabits is an inspired architect.� --The Telegraph, 11th November 2011 ****

�[it] has everything we expect from a Tchaikovsky interpreter of the Moscow school � colour, sweep, majesty, but not a whiff of indulgence. The Bournemouth orchestra responds with style and drive � all wind sections in superlative form � and a symphony that is often dismissed as a poor relation of its better known successors comes across as a masterpiece� --Financial Times, 26th November 2011 *****