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.

Igor Markevitch enjoys a legendary reputation. He was successful both as a conductor of leading orchestras and as a composer and (university) lecturer. His pupils include Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt and Wolfgang Sawallisch. In his autobiography Die Musik – mein Leben (music, my life) Barenboim recalls that Igor Markevitch had taught him “a personal, highly individual style of conducting”. In his Salzburg course he was “completely preoccupied with the clarity of the sound, the clarity of the rhythm and the clarity of the gesture”. In many ways it was these characteristics that Markevitch introduced to the collective consciousness of the orphaned late-60s Gewandhaus orchestra. 1968 had seen Václav Neumann resign his position as conductor in protest at the suppression of the “Prague Spring” and its echo in the publications of East Germany’s ruling Socialist Unity Party. Despite his short term of office, Neumann was able to advance from the Konwitschny era with a new approach to programming and a new style – by means of new or additional core repertoire and a leaner, more highly articulated sound. Markevitch was the ideal person to continue this task. Markevitch laid down his understanding of maintaining tradition through renewal with his 1973 Eterna recording of a work that is one of the world’s best known: Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition in Maurice Ravel’s orchestration. Ravel’s version has clearly acquired more of a patina than the original piano version written half a century earlier, as even a first hearing of Markevitch’s recording proves. His interpretation suggest an imagined reorchestration of Mussorgsky’s work – rough and angular rather than polished and elegant. Without any patina. There is another work which was recorded for this production – Mussorgsky‘s symphonic poem Night on Bald Mountain.

"Anyone who knows Ader's recordings of Debussy and Messiaen already understands just how perceptive a musician she is. More than her refined sense of keyboard color, she has an ability to project musical architecture through the phrasing of large paragraphs, which serves Franck particularly well. Thus, the two fugues build effortlessly from beginning to end, with exceptionally clear voicing and an unerring sense of where the music is going." -- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com [reviewing Alice Ader playing Franck, Fuga Libera 209]

Every disc of Alice Ader holds a special place in the world of piano. This one is no exception. From the first bars of Une Larme, Mussorgsky's inner world is revealed. This new 2-CD set, which includes the complete piano works from the composer of Boris Godunov flies by and let us deeply marked. And the Tableaux d'une exposition, magnificently interpreted here, is not Mussorgsky's only work of art: there are also about fifteen other pieces plus a transcription of Une nuit sur le Mont Chauve by Rimsky-Korsakov. A summit meeting between a great lady of the piano and the work of a furious genius.

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

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

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

Questions of editions and orchestration aside, Modest Mussorgsky's penetrating, powerful and potent four-act Boris Godunov, arguably the greatest Russian opera of the 19th c., requires no less than a figure of towering stature to portray this late 16th - early 17th c. Russian Czar. This 1958 Covent Garden performance led by Czech conductor Rafael Kubelik, in his last year as the Royal Opera House music director, has such a figure in Boris Christoff, a bass of considerable vocal and acting talent. Josephine Veasey, Geraint Evans and Regina Resnik, among other cast members, prove no less formidable.

Classical Music

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.