Customer Reviews

Mussorgsky: St. John's Night On Bare Mountain; Works

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The cd is unique for including Mussorgsky's rarely-performed independent orchestral pieces:
Intermezzo in modo classico, The Capture of Kars and the Scherzo.

The conductor, Claudio Abbado, takes advantage of the sensitive modern digital sound to produce a record full of inspiration.

The Berliner Philharmoniker responds to him terrifically.

Kotcherga, older than he was is Abbado's dvd of Khovanshchina, sings Shaklovity's aria like a Dosifey or a Boris, and his Chernobog is thrilling.

Tarasova has a real depth of tone which great Marfas such as Semtschuk and Cossotto lacked. She is described as a mezzo but both here and in Boris Godunov (where she played the innkeeper) she sounds like a contralto.

The choir here sings with better diction than in Abbado's Khovanshchina dvd.

The only problem is the packing:
There's no mention of who orchestrated the excerpts from Khovanshchina. (Shostakovich, I guess)

On the whole, this is a perfect example of Mussorgsky's art (and Abbado's).

Awesome and brilliant recording of Mussorgsky's "Night on Bare Mountain" with a full orchestra and choir. It will bring you chills as it fills the air with sounds of evil incarnation and darkness only to be followed by divine and majestic absolution. Good album to play at Halloween time and a good introduction to get kids interested in classical music.
Buy this album and play it LOUD!!