Mussorgsky's loveless and brutal drama of the transformation of Russian society, which led to the rule of Peter the Great within the epic history of Russia, is powerfully modernised through Stein Winge's dramatic and uncompromising production.

An individual and strongly gifted composer, Mussorgsky was a self-taught amateur who became one of Russia's foremost 19th century musical figures, tragically dying young. This CD contains 'alternative' versions of many pieces to those most commonly heard - including the manuscript version of 'Pictures' avoiding the many substantial errors contained in the first edition and perpetuated - and three even earlier drafts, together with unusual versions of some works. Once again Anthony Goldstone provides a phenomenal performance.

Classical Music

After delivering a magnificent history of orchestral jazz with their previous opus (Big One), Stan Laferri�re and his big band have now produced an adaptation of Modest Mussorgsky's famous Pictures at an Exhibition, an essential work in the music of 19th century Russia. And his guest here, Pierre de Bethmann, takes the opportunity to show his own artistry by inserting subtle variations as a counterpoint to the orchestra's own discourse. This jazz version of Pictures concocted by Laferri�re (almost 100 years after the unavoidable adaptation by Maurice Ravel), gives Mussorgsky's work a sparkling treatment: it shows exactly why this is one of the most appreciated, most often played pieces in the world's repertoire, and not only where jazz and classics fans are concerned.

The Lucerne Festival Orchestra brass players perform a broad spectrum of brass music. The ensemble's repertoire includes early polyphonic and Venetian antiphonal masterpieces, Classical and Romantic works, and pieces from the 20th and 21st centuries by composers such as Sofia Gubaidulina, Wolfgang Rihm, Galina Ustwolskaja, and Einojuhani Rautavaara. The group also performs arrangements of well-known piano or orchestral works, often transcribed especially for them. The forces of the ensemble vary according to the demands of the pieces, ranging from solos and duets to a full wind ensemble. The group is also regularly augmented by other members of the festival orchestra, particularly the percussionists. The concerts of the Brass Ensemble of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra are a popular and indispensable element of the festival's summer programs.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition / Balakirev: Islamey

Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition - Borodin: Polovtsian

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

When Modest Mussorgsky visited an exhibition of the painter Ludwig Hartwig, he was so impressed with the artist's artistic language, that he put the works into music. A great fortune for the painter's opus, for some paintings are now lost, but their musical counterpart can be vividly remembered. In the case of Ars Produktion, Ravel's version for orchestra now appears as a live version of a children's concert.

Mussorgsky, M.P.: Boris Godunov (Excerpts) (Sung in German)

Orchestral Music (Russian) - Glinka, M.I. / Rimsky-Korsakov,

Classical Music

As a winner of numerous national and international youth competitions, Robert Neumann (born 2001) was awarded with the International Classic Music Discovery Award 2017. In 2018, the Jury of the SWR (radio broadcasting corporation in Southwest Germany) chose Robert as the"SWR New Talent". For his debut CD at SWRmusic, Robert was awarded the OPUS KLASSIK Young Artist of the Year 2021. The young pianist made his orchestral debut with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra when he was eight, and since then he has appeared with other orchestras, including the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, German State Philharmonic Ludwigshafen, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Liechtenstein Symphony Orchestra, SWR Symphonieorchestra, Praga Philharmonic Camerata and the Gewandhaus Orchestra. For his second album, Robert Neumann chose two works which can easily be placed side by side and that are both close to the pianist’s heart. Robert Schumann‘s Kreisleriana is about a character from several tales by E. T. A. Hoffmann and Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition describes walking from one work of art to the next. Both are programme music pieces with somewhat comparable ideas but, as Neumann puts it: „One idea deals with a real character, the other one doesn’t […]. And I think both show in an exemplary manner how flawlessly and also in different ways a great Romantic cycle can be structured, formed.

Mussorgsky was inspired to compose his masterpiece Boris Godunov after reading Pushkin’s Shakespeare-inspired play of the same name. It features one of the most dramatically rewarding bass-baritone roles: a noble ruler who loves his children and his people, but whose thirst for power has led him to commit a terrible crime. Bryn Terfel is “a powerful new Boris” (The Observer) in Richard Jones’ new production of the original 1869 score. Antonio Pappano conducts an outstanding cast that also includes John Graham-Hall as the crafty Prince Shuisky and John Tomlinson as the vagabond monk Varlaam.

4 CDs of award-winning performances, the great Russian baritone Sergei Leiferkus sings the songs of his compatriot Mussorgsky. “Absolutely riveting,” wrote Gramophone’s reviewer, praising the singer’s “amazing variety of tone colour and textual inflexion” and pianist Semion Skigin “a wonderfully responsive partner.”

REVIEW:

Although Sergei Leiferkus does not have the most powerful baritone in the world, his insight, intelligence, intuition, authority, and soulfulness more than compensate. And in the Russian art song repertoire, he hardly has any competitors. His recordings of Glinka and Tchaikovsky are flat out magnificent. But decades from now, when art song aficionados speak of Leiferkus, it will be his recordings of the songs of Mussorgsky that are mentioned in hushed whispers and reverential tones.

Not since Boris Chirstoff's sublime survey of the complete Mussorgsky songs has another singer of comparable stature scaled the heights Leiferkus reaches in the first volume of the songs. His The Songs and Dances of Death are among the most terrifying, moving, and truthful ever recorded. His The Puppet-Show is dreadfully, nastily witty and his Forgotten is heartbreaking. His Darling Savishna is drop-dead funny. And his concluding Mephistopheles' Song of the Flea is grotesquely hilarious. In all ways, this is one of the best art song recitals in years. Except for one thing. There is not much good to say about his recording of The Nursery. Sung throughout in his head voice, as Mussorgsky requires, Leiferkus' interpretation of the songs through his tone is frankly agonizing to hear. He minces, he mutters, he mumbles, he does everything except chew the scenery. This is still a highly recommend recording, but just skip Leiferkus' The Nursery.

-- AllMusic.com (James Leonard)

Classical Music

Drawn from the worldwide catalog holdings of Sony Classical, which includes both the Columbia/CBS and RCA Victor label imprints, the SONY Classical Originals, SONY Classical Masters Singles and Box Sets, and SONY Opera House series offer an extensive selection of highly desirable and collectible EU (Germany) pressed import editions, smartly-designed and graphically-pleasing, featuring the most sought-after recordings by the world’s preeminent, legendary artists both past and present, with many titles newly re-mastered in 24bit High Resolution Audio.

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

oris Godunov is the story not only of a troubled leader but of an entire nation, and its history is as eventful as that of Mother Russia herself. In this new production, the legendary director Andrei Konchalovsky presents a personal vision of the opera that takes Mussorgsky’s bare and monumental first version as its basis, while adding the final scene from the composer’s revision, in which not only the Tsar but the people themselves reveal their fatal flaws.

Orlin Anastassov stars in the title role, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.

‘’Orchestrally and vocally outstanding’’ -- The Opera Critic

Modest Mussorgsky
BORIS GODUNOV
production based on the original 1869 version, with final scene of revised 1872 version
(Blu-ray Disc Version)

Boris – Orlin Anastassov
Xenia – Alessandra Marianelli
Fyodor – Pavel Zubov
Grigory – Ian Storey
Pimen – Vladimir Vaneev
Prince Shuisky – Peter Bronder
Andrey Shchelkalov – Vasily Ladyuk
Varlaam – Vladimir Matorin
Missail – Luca Casalin
Innkeeper – Nadezhda Serdyuk
Holy Fool – Evgeny Akimov
Nurse – Elena Sommer
Nikitich – John Paul Huckle
Mityukha – Oliviero Giorgiutti
Boyar-in-attendance – Matthias Stier
Khrushchyov – Andrei Konchalovsky

Torino Teatro Regio Chorus and Orchestra
Gianandrea Noseda, conductor

Andrei Konchalovsky, stage director

Recorded live from the Teatro Regio, Turin, 7–13 October 2010.

Bonus:
- Cast Gallery
- Interviews with Andrei Konchalovsky and Gianandrea Noseda

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: LPCM Stereo 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Menu language: English
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish
Running time: 164 mins
No. of Discs: 1 (Blu-ray)

Also available on Blu-ray

Boris Godunov is the story not only of a troubled leader but of an entire nation, and its history is as eventful as that of Mother Russia herself. In this new production, the legendary director Andrei Konchalovsky presents a personal vision of the opera that takes Mussorgsky’s bare and monumental first version as its basis, while adding the final scene from the composer’s revision, in which not only the Tsar but the people themselves reveal their fatal flaws.

Orlin Anastassov stars in the title role, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.

‘’Orchestrally and vocally outstanding’’ -- The Opera Critic

Modest Mussorgsky
BORIS GODUNOV
production based on the original 1869 version, with final scene of revised 1872 version
(DVD Version)

Boris – Orlin Anastassov
Xenia – Alessandra Marianelli
Fyodor – Pavel Zubov
Grigory – Ian Storey
Pimen – Vladimir Vaneev
Prince Shuisky – Peter Bronder
Andrey Shchelkalov – Vasily Ladyuk
Varlaam – Vladimir Matorin
Missail – Luca Casalin
Innkeeper – Nadezhda Serdyuk
Holy Fool – Evgeny Akimov
Nurse – Elena Sommer
Nikitich – John Paul Huckle
Mityukha – Oliviero Giorgiutti
Boyar-in-attendance – Matthias Stier
Khrushchyov – Andrei Konchalovsky

Torino Teatro Regio Chorus and Orchestra
Gianandrea Noseda, conductor

Andrei Konchalovsky, stage director

Recorded live from the Teatro Regio, Turin, 7–13 October 2010.

Bonus:
- Cast Gallery
- Interviews with Andrei Konchalovsky and Gianandrea Noseda

Picture format: NTSC 16:9 anamorphic
Sound format: LPCM Stereo 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Menu language: English
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish
Running time: 164 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

Also available on Blu-ray

Opera in four parts and seven scenes. Original version (1868/1869)
Libretto: Modest Mussorgsky after Alexander Pushkin & Nikolai Karamsins

Stage direction: Calixto Bieito
Set design: Rebecca Ringst
Costume design: Ingo Krügler
Lighting: Michael Bauer
Dramaturgy: Andrea Schönhofer
HD recording: Bavarian State Opera, Munich, February 2013

Child murder, scheming monks and a Tsar lapsing into madness - Modest Mussorgsky spread the thematic arc wide in his choral opera, which he began to work on from 1868, and with which he attempted to awaken an awareness of his own time through the indirect route of a historic story.

As an artist of the 19th century, he was driven by the psychology of the masses. Thus, in 'Boris Godunov', alongside the hero of the title, the main role is actually taken primarily by the Russian people, rejoicing, starving, demanding and questioning. In conjuction with conductor Kent Nagano, Spanish stage director Calixto Bieito proposes an original reading of this brilliant work. The cast is led by Alexander Tsymbalyuk (Boris), with associates Gerhard Siegel (Schuisky), Markus Eiche (Chelkalov) and Anatoli Kotscherga (Pimen).

"A 'Boris Godunov' to die for...The bass Alexander Tsymbalyuk sings Boris with handsome, lean tone and ably conveys the Czar's mental disintegration'' NEW YORK TIMES

Director: Andy Sommer Length: 139 min.
Picture: NTSC, colour, 16:9
Audio: PCM Stereo, 5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles: French / English / German
Region: All Region