Modest Mussorgsky
58 products
Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov / Nagano, Tsymbalyuk, Sokolik, Nakamura, Grotzinger, Siegel, Eiche [blu-ray]
Also available on standard DVD
Opera in four parts and seven scenes, First 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
Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov
Russian Piano Forte / Jimin Oh-Havenith
Jimin Oh-Havenith's fourth album for audite is dedicated to works by Mussorgsky, Scriabin and Rachmaninoff, three of the most famous Russian composers of the 19th and (early) 20th centuries. Planned long before Putin's Ukraine war, the release is now a beacon for the often damaged freedom of art.
A breath of fresh air is blowing over the Ural Opera Ballet with this new version of Paquita, halfway between tradition and modernity! A festive ballet recounting the thwarted loves of a gypsy and an officer, Paquita marked the debut of Marius Petipa in Saint Petersburg. But only the last scene of the ballet, the famous Grand pas Classique, remained in the companies’ repertoire. Thanks to a careful reconstruction, the Ural Opera Ballet finally revives the original version in three acts. The product of methodical research by expert Sergei Vikharev and former Principal Vyacheslav Samodurov, the choreography scrupulously recreates Petipa’s 1881 version, according to notes kept at the Harvard Theater Collection. The original score has been rearranged by the famous Saint Petersburg composer, Yuri Krasavin. But if this new production uses the original libretto of the ballet, it nonetheless transposes it in time. The result is a show of great relevance, which brings up to date the strong political and social substrate of the original plot by illustrating it with artistic references gleaned throughout the 20th century. A powerful theatrical experience, crowned with the jury’s special award of the ‘‘Golden Mask’’ in 2019.
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition & Pictures from the Crimea / Simon, Philharmonia Orchestra
Written after Mussorgsky had met Russian artist and designer Viktor Hartmann, Pictures at an Exhibition is by far Mussorgsky’s most played work. The piece was written when Hartmann gave Mussorgsky two ‘pictures.’ Hartmann very suddenly died aged 39; following his death, a memorial exhibition was put on in St. Petersburg. Mussorgsky donated the two ‘pictures’ which Hartmann had given him before he died. Mussorgsky is said to have based the piece on his experiences at this exhibition, which was in memory of Hartmann. The concerto version is performed here by Tamas Ungar in an arrangement by Lawrence Leonard. Australian conductor Geoffrey Simon is resident in London and has appeared there with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra and English Chamber Orchestra. Internationally, he has appeared with the Adelaide, Atlanta, Bournemouth, Canberra, City of Birmingham, Fort Worth, Melbourne, Milwaukee, Queensland, Sapporo, Shanghai, St Louis, Sydney, Tasmanian, Vermont and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, the Israel, Moscow, Munich and New Japan Philharmonic Orchestras, the American Symphony, the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony and the Australian Opera.
Mussorgsky: Unorthodox Music / Booth, Glynn
| First Percy Grainger: Folk Music, then Edvard Grieg: Lyric Music, and now Modest Mussorgsky: Unorthodox Music – a logical sequence in soprano Claire Booth’s and pianist Christopher Glynn’s growing AVIE discography, interspersing a selection of under-represented songs with solo piano works by this most individual and idiosyncratic of all Russian composers. Claire and Chris approach Modest Mussorgsky: Unorthodox Music in the spirit of a storyteller, tracing an arc of life from innocence to experience that is arranged across a prologue and four “scenes” – Nursery, Youthful Years, Marriage and Loneliness – taking their cue from the colorful tableaux of the composer’s operas. Individual numbers from the great song cycles – Youthful Years, Nursery, Sunless, and Songs and Dances of Death – are juxtaposed with works from Mussorgsky’s more unorthodox output, all delivered by Claire and Chris with disarming affect. |
Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov / Nagano, Gothenburg Symphony
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REVIEWS:
Tsymbalyuk’s young-sounding Tsar is beautifully sung, gaining in intensity from the scene in the Kremlin onwards; but the developing extremity of his emotional responses is never overdone and his death scene remains restrained, with no scenery-chewing.
– Opera
This new account, based on live performances, is beautifully sung and played, and recorded in surround sound. Although one can nitpick many aspects of this recording, there is much to enjoy. It is especially valuable to now have a recording of the opera as Mussorgsky first intended it.
– MusicWeb International
Mussorgsky: Pictures At An Exhibition, Etc / Kuchar, Et Al
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
