Pictures Reframed- Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition From Memories of Childhood; Schumann: Kinderszenen [Enhanced]

Leif Ove Andsnes (Artist, Conductor, Performer), Mussorgsky (Composer), Schumann (Composer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Leif Ove Andsnes
• Conductor: Leif Ove Andsnes
• Composer: Mussorgsky, Schumann
• Audio CD (November 3, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Label: Emi Classics
• ASIN: B002N57WBA
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,292 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jaw-dropping innovation, November 19, 2009

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Classics Lover - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pictures Reframed- Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition From Memories of Childhood; Schumann: Kinderszenen (Audio CD)

Leif Ove Andsnes plays Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition with a combination of dedication, virtuosity and understanding which few in any other living pianists bring to it. You can just hear how much love is being poured from Leif's fingers tips to the keyboard. This release only entices me to go a buy a ticket to his upcoming performance at Lincoln Center. I've always been a fan of Leif Ove Andsnes not only because he's an amazing pianist, but also because he's an innovative musician. That's why I found Pictures at an Exhibition such an amazing recording. What a brilliant idea of working with South African-born visual artist Robin Rhode to create a special program, Pictures Reframed, which centers around Pictures at an Exhibition combining music, video and still imagery.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When I Was a Child, I Heard as a Child ..., October 3, 2010

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Giordano Bruno - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pictures Reframed- Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition From Memories of Childhood; Schumann: Kinderszenen (Audio CD)

It's a wonderful juxtaposition, this CD, of 'childhood' music!

Robert Schumann's Kinderszenen (Children Scenes) are technically accessible etudes that able children might well play but that also portray the intimate awarenesses of children so evocatively that mature pianists find them affectively satisfying. Leif Ove Andsnes plays them with delicacy and, to my ears anyway, 'fatherly' tenderness. Scumann composed these thirteen brief etudes before his marriage, yet his instincts were sweetly polyphiloprogentive ... for a man with an alcohol problem and a probably bipolar disorder. He eventually fathered eight biological children with Clara. I'd venture to guess, by the way, that the Kinderszenen are even more delightful to play than to hear. Ah, if only I'd taken piano as a child instead of trumpet ...

I first heard Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" as a child - a big rambunctious one, of twelve or thirteen - performed by S. Richter. I was entranced. Leif Ove Andsnes reports hearing the same performance at age 15 and being equally enchanted. Mussorgsky's most famous composition is marvelously pictorial, external, adolescent, naive. Adnsnes writes that it makes him think of "a child marching in to the exhibition in complete ignorance of what he will encounter." Mussorgsky was a naive composer, a child with a sorry drinking problem; his training in music was so scanty that all of his major compositions have demanded 'supplementation' - help - by later composers. "Pictures at a Exhibition" has been orchestrated by others, and Mussorgsky's piano score has been 'realized' by numerous pianists. Andsnes acknowledges that his own extrapolation of the music is based on the edition prepared by Vladimir Horowitz. Without such editorial realization, the work is sparse and sketchy. What I need to say, however, is that Andsnes's performance has awakened my own childhood rapture at this music, which had long gone dormant. Andsnes doesn't hammer his Pictures to the wall; that is, he doesn't overdramatize/over-romanticize them. He allows their playful charm to evoke 'pictures' in lush and easy sonority. What would a child see in the actual paintings by Victor Hartman that supposedly inspired Mussorgsky's Pictures? Prettiness first, I think, followed by humor and whimsy, with just a shadow of anxious dread, of fear of the dark. That's how I want to hear the music, as a child would hear it.

Andsnes performed "Pictures at an Exhibition" in concert, around the world, in collaboration with Robin Rhode, a South African 'multi-media' artist. Their "show" was entitled "Pictures Reframed". I ordered this CD before I was aware that an edition is available that includes both a CD and a DVD of the full performance. Other reviewers have asserted that the sound quality on the DVD is better than on the CD. Now I've ordered the combo, so perhaps I'll donate the CD to my local library.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Leif leaves much to be desired..., January 5, 2012

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Musica Nova Amsterdam - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pictures Reframed- Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition From Memories of Childhood; Schumann: Kinderszenen (Audio CD)

This recording of Mussorgsky's 'Bilder einer Ausstellung', played by Leif Ove Andsnes, leaves much to be desired. Andsnes' piano playing misses all the rich subtilities of this piece. Speed and loudness is more important to him, than showing feelings and creating a musical landscape. The Schumann piece, also on this cd, is unfortunately not played much better.
But the main problem with this cd is the fact that the recording is terrible. There are absolutely NO dynamics in the music, it's all flat: the pianissimo pieces have the same loudness as the forte pieces! The EMI producers removed all musicality by compressing the sound. Works well for radio stations and car radio's, but not at home. If you want a fine AND musical recording of Mussorgsky's masterpiece, buy Evgeny Kissin's recording on BMG.
Only two stars.