Leif Ove Andsnes is a leading pianist of his time, known for his exceptional musicianship and subtil touch, his considerable technical flair being unfailingly put at the service of his interpretations. He was a pioneer for being the first home-trained superstar pianist to have emerged from Norway. This box is the story of a 20-year partnership that has yielded a rich seam of recorded treasures, first for Virgin and then for EMI. Running through this cornucopia of 34 albums (36 CDs), we find recurring themes: Grieg (Andsnes even recorded some Lyric Pieces on the composer's own piano at Troldhaugen), Nordic music in general, Schumann, Rachmaninov, Schubert.

Of Gods and Demons

Kissin, one of the most well known and best selling pianist performs one of the piano's most popular works, Mussorgsky's Picture at an Exhibition.

This is a DSD (Direct Stream Digital) recording

MUSSORGSKY: PICTURES AT AN EXH

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Modest Mussorgsky wrote many works for the piano, most of which were published posthumously. Born in 1839, Mussorgsky began to compose at an early age, writing his first piece, Portenseigne Polka, in 1852, at the age of thirteen. Throughout his life, he composed works of various lengths for the instrument, many of unquestionable musical worth; his last compositions date from 1880, one year prior to his untimely death, at the age of 42. Mussorgsky’s best-known piano work is undoubtedly the monumental Pictures at an Exhibition (1874), made famous by Ravel’s orchestration, as well as Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s highly inventive orchestral version. It’s only in the original piano version, however, that Mussorgsky’s remarkable, fierce stylistic creativity is revealed. These complete works are performed by Italian pianist Giacomo Scinardo.

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"Where opera is concerned, our generation will undoubtedly be remembered for its emphasis on restoring scores to their pristine state, or at least attempting to divine and then execute the original intentions of the composer. Whether it be Gluck, Mozart, Verdi or Mussorgsky, authenticity and completeness have been the order of the day, perhaps going even beyond the composer's own wishes. In the case of Boris nobody has been more diligent than Abbado over the past 15 years, since he first presented the epic at La Scala, in seeking the truth about this vast canvas. Now we have the latest fruits of his efforts. Incidentally, this work forcibly reminds us how little has changed in Russia regarding conflicts of power: fanaticism and religion competing for attention with cruelty and intrigue. Plus ça change ...

As happens most often today, Abbado plays the definitive 1872-4 version, adding scenes, including the complete one in Pimen's cell and the St Basil's scene from 1869. To avoid the Simpleton losing his kopek twice he omits the repetition of this episode, cutting from fig. 20-25 (in the OUP full score) in the Kromy Forest scene; a sensible solution.

This recording took place in 1993, as Richard Fairman explains on page 16, around the same time similar forces presented two concert performances in the Berlin Philharmonie, where the set was also recorded. It precedes stage performances in Salzburg (Easter and summer this year) with similar forces. As when Abbado conducted the work at Covent Garden in 1983 and at the Vienna State Opera in 1991, his is a taut, tense reading. With the Berlin Philharmonic now at his call, it has become grander, more virtuosic, at times hard-driven, favouring extremes of speed. The orchestra is very much in the foreground, sounding more emphatic than would ever be the case in the opera house. The total effect, for all its magnificence, is a shade unrelenting and the extremes of dynamics, recalling Karajan, are very marked. The precision and clarity are undoubted: whether or not Mussorgsky might not have preferred Gergiev's more understated, equally incisive Kirov reading on the Decca video version which I reviewed last month, is a matter of conjecture.

What cannot be doubted is that Michael Haas's first opera recording as producer for Sony Classical is of demonstration standard: most potent in the way it captures the wonderfully incisive and pointed singing of the combined choruses in their various guises, best heard through the most wideranging loudspeakers. Here all is vividly brought before us by conductor and producer in the wide panorama predicated by Mussorgsky's all enveloping vision.

Kotcherga, the Russian bass who will also sing the title-role at Salzburg, has a superb voice, firmly produced throughout an extensive register. Even before I read RTF's report, I was astonished and delighted at the accuracy of his reading and at its complete avoidance of conventional melodrama. I was interested to read that he was concerned to show the loving father, for his scene with Boris's children is here among the most rewarding. Given the velvety, soft grain of his timbre, it may not be surprising that the inner torment is not always much in evidence as it is with Talvela (on the reissued EMI recording), even more with Ghiaurov for Tchakarov. But these may seem like quibbles when set beside the beauty and musicality of Kotcherga's concept.

The ambitious lovers are well represented. Indeed, Larin is quite the best Grigory yet on disc, sounding at once youthful, heroic and ardent, and quite free of tenor mannerisms. Lipovkk characterizes Marina forcefully: we are well aware of the scheming Princess's powers of wheeler-dealing and of erotic persuasion. A certain hardness that has now come into her tone lately is not inappropriate. Even so, I would like to have heard the lovely Elena Zaremba in the role: here she makes a lively Hostess, a part so often consigned to superannuated mezzos. Marina's scene with the Rangoni of Leiferkus is one of the set's best, accompanied with a sure feeling for its many undercurrents of religious bigotry, voluptuousness and cant.

Ramey is classy casting for Pimen, but – for all his fine singing – he doesn't quite convince me that he is inside the part. Ghiuselev (Tchakarov) or Morozov (Gergiev) show just how much more subtlety can be read into the old monk's narration through variations of colour, tone and phrase deriving from long experience in the genre (Tchakarov is also gentler, more yielding here than Abbado). Langridge certainly knows everything there is to know about Shuisky, a role he has often sung with Abbado and though his tone hasn't true Russian character, his range of colour is arresting.

There seems no end these days to the new talent coming out of Russia. Here we have Albert Shagidullin as Shchelkolov, the Boyar's Secretary, disclosing a baritone of infinite possibilities and Alexander Fedin, a Covent Garden Rodolfo, singing the Simpleton with plaintive beauty."

-- Gramophone [5/1994] Reviewing original release

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

Modest Mussorgsky’s music drama Boris Godunov was premiered in front of St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia, the same location where this 2014 performance takes place. Conceived by Plamen Kartaloff, director of the Sofia Opera, this production took place 90 years after the building’s consecreation, and was dedicated to the centennial anniversary of the birth of Boris Christoff and the 85th anniversary of the birth of Nicolai Ghiaurov, two vocalists who became famous for their performances as Boris. For this performance, the role of Boris is sung by Martin Tsonev.

Picture Format: 16:9
Sound Format: PCM 2.0
Region Code: 0 (Worldwide)

Evgeny Samoyloff writes: “Mussorgsky’s From Memories of Childhood cycle was never completed by the composer; in fact, he wrote only the first two pieces: ‘The Nurse and I’ and ‘The First Punishment’. An earlier cycle-to-be, entitled Children’s Games and featuring ‘Corners’ as its opening piece, was similarly never completed. I have taken the liberty of selecting what I believe to be the best of Mussorgsky’s miniature pieces – those that appear most complete – and of joining them to the primary cycle of Childhood Memories. I was guided by the music’s imagery and by its ‘childhood’ essence (as if seen through the eyes of a child), and I have endeavored to compile the set following the principles of contrast and artistic integrity, as well as those of tonal and architectural balance. This is how this cycle of eight pieces came into being, and I hope that it has a right to exist and to achieve widespread appeal.”

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)

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.

The young person's guide to the orchestra (though not presented as such) and anyone's guide to orchestration coupled together: and if you like the idea, I can scarcely imagine it being better done. You may think Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky too sophisticated—but you can hardly deny its invention and skill.

Both works are played with very great virtuosity, to the extent that you are likely to get much pleasure from hearing a superb orchestra showing off, and also, in the appropriate places, playing with much sensitivity. In the Mussorgsky, "The Old Castle" is most beautifully played; "Tuileries" is only an allegretto non troppo, no more, and is all the more attractive for it, while "Bydlo" isn't drearily slow. But there is brilliance in plenty: in the terrific vitality of "Gnomus", in the lightness of the "Dance of the Chickens in their Shells", in the characterisation of "Goldenberg and Schmuyle", and in the market at Limoges. The brass in "Catacombs" is exceptionally well judged and Ozawa makes a link into the next piece that is not marked but is very effective.

The piece is not, as usual, complete on one side but that doesn't matter with a concoction of this kind. My test copy did a bad groove jump in the loudest part of "The Great Gate of Kiev" but that will no doubt not be a general flaw. This was the stereo—the mono played perfectly well: all the same, these pieces, both Mussorgsky and Britten gain very greatly from the spaciousness of stereo. The Britten is almost equally well done —certainly the playing is of the greatest virtuosity. I would have liked the theme 'cleaner' and more Purcellian, for even though it is fully orchestrated by Britten, I feel sure he wants the character of its composer kept: and in the final fugue, when the brass bring back Purcell's theme, very grandly, Britten's fugue theme gets swamped in both stereo and mono, which misses the whole point of the writing.

But in general the recording is very good indeed and I have the greatest admiration for the Chicago orchestra's playing under Ozawa.

T.H., Gramophone [9/1968] Reviewing Original LP

A short article can hardly hope to do justice to the memory of Boris Christoff, the famous Bulgarian bass born in Plovdiv on May 18th 1914 who died in Rome on June 28th 1993. One could write endlessly about his career which began almost by chance after he graduated in law, or about his relationship with his teacher, the great baritone Riccardo Stracciari, or about his clashes with directors (for example in the 1948 version of Boris Godunov directed by Peter Broook) or colleagues (the 1956 Medea in Riome with Maria Callas). One could give a detailed description of his concept of art, of opera, of music and of life itself. But, alas space is short. Let us concentrate then, on this production of Khovatchina, recorded live at the Foro Italico on August 3rd 1958 in Rome during the then magnificent RAI seasons. It should be noted at once that this recording fills a most serious gap and brings us one of the key roles Christoff was to perform during his career. It is incomprehensible why he was made to record the complete edition of Mussorgsky's melodies - a monument to Christoff's art - two versions of Boris Godunov (in 1952 with Issay Dobrowen and ten years later with André Cluytens) but never his colorful interpretation of Dossifej. Khovanshchina was written between 1872 and 1880 in St. Petersburg, Russia. When the composer died in 1881, the opera remained unfinished and unperformed. The work deals with Russian history, particularly the rebellion of Prince Ivan Khovansky, the Old Believers, and the Muscovite Streltsy against the regent Sofia Alekseyevna and the young Tsars Peter the Great and Ivan V.

Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov stands out among the major works of the opera repertoire in having an extremely complex creative history. The original libretto, by the composer himself, was based closely on Pushkin’s Shakespeare-inspired drama about the ill-fated Russian ruler. Mussorgsky completed the score in 1869, and submitted it to the committees of the Imperial Theatres. It was rejected, however, primarily because of the lack of a female lead and therefore a love interest, but Mussorgsky’s unadorned style has also been mentioned as a reason. In 1871 the composer therefore reworked the opera extensively, adding new scenes – and a female principal in the form of the Polish princess Marina Mniszek – and changing the overall structure from seven scenes into a prologue and four acts. The revised Boris was completed in 1872, and two years later it was finally performed in St Petersburg, while the Moscow audience had to wait until 1888, seven years after the death of its composer. In order to promote the work, Mussorgsky’s colleague and friend Rimsky-Korsakov undertook to revise the work, making the orchestration more traditional and colorful and softening a number of harsh harmonies. It was the Rimsky-Korsakov version that took the opera out of Russia and without it, the opera would not be as widely known as it is today. In recent times, however, several opera houses have begun performing the more abrasive original version from 1869, and it is this ‘Ur-Boris’ that has been recorded here. It is performed by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under its principal guest conductor, Kent Nagano. They are joined by a cast of mainly Russian vocal soloists, headed by Alexander Tsymbalyuk as Boris, a role he performed under Nagano already in 2013 at the Bayerische Staatsoper. In the opera, as in Pushkin’s drama, the Russian people plays a hugely important role – here performed by the Göteborg Opera Chorus.

-----

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

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.

These brilliant, hard-driving performances bring back (happy) memories of Russian orchestras of the 1960s and a style of playing that has all but disappeared. The performances aren't subtle, but then neither is the music, and my how Theodore Kuchar and Co. deliver the goods! The playing isn't perfect: in Pictures, Gnomus sounds a touch frantic, and the trumpets smear their rhythms in Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle; but incidental imperfections count for little next to Kuchar's "pedal to the metal" approach. Listen to the plangent wind sonorities in the second Promenade, to the pounding attack on The Hut on Fowl's Legs, or to the totally uninhibited brass and percussion at the conclusion of The Great Gate of Kiev. This is the real deal, an impression only confirmed by scorching accounts of both versions of A Night on Bald Mountain (Mussorgsky's original and Rimsky-Korsakov's better-known rewrite). The other two short pieces, the Hopak and Golitsin's Exile, simply put the icing on the cake. Don't let the cheap price, the not-terribly-well-known performers, or the brevity of this review prevent you from trying out this really exciting and very well recorded disc (probably the best sonics from this source thus far). You'll be missing a real treat if you do. [6/7/2003]

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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)

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.

Based on a story by Gogol, Modest Mussorgsky's unfinished Sorochintsi Fair is a comic opera in which amorous encounters intermingle with a devil's curse. Potentially a compelling and original drama, Salammbo was Mussorgsky's first attempt at an opera. Both works are world premiere recordings of chamber versions arranged by Fabrice Bollon, using only original material as their basis.

Old Russian folk melodies; the traits of human life (joy, love, illness, poverty, death, religion); a high aesthetic-musical realism as a compositional commitment. These are the ingredients in Musorgsky's Lieder, already appreciated by Liszt and Debussy, and now available in this box set.

Classical Minimalism

A musician as loved as he was admired, the pianist Nicholas Angelich died in Paris in April 2022 at the age of 51. Angelich was a modest, thoughtful man who brought tremendous integrity, depth and insight to the most demanding repertoire. His association with Warner Classics lasted some 20 years, and the label pays tribute to him with this 7CD collection of previously unreleased recordings of solo, chamber and concerto repertoire. Made either in the concert hall or for radio broadcast between 1999 and 2016, they range wide, including works by Bach, Bart�k, Beethoven Berg, Brahms, Franck, Haydn, Liszt, Mussorgsky, Ravel, Rachmaninov and Zemlinsky. Appearing with Angelich are Martha Argerich, Quatuor Eb�ne, Myung-Whun Chung and the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, and Tugan Sokhiev and the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse.

Lars Vogt (1970-2022) early recordings collected here provide a document of an artist who always remained authentic, both to himself and to music. Lars Vogt never sought absolute truth, but truthfulness instead meant all the more to him. The man and the artist were always very close, never currying favour and never detached from the world. He was, instead, open and natural. "It's incredibly gratifying when you notice that you can perhaps light a little spark, a little flame for music in people, and when music helps you to find the path to your own soul."

The collaborative efforts, the mutual emulation and inspiration of Sir Antonio Pappano and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome have spanned 18 years, led to one of the world's greatest and most versatile virtuoso ensembles and to acclaimed live and studio recordings showcasing an eclectic selection of symphonic and choral music. Their repertoire features already legendary performances of Verdi's Requiem and Quattro pezzi sacri. In addition, their recording of Bruckner's 8th Symphony features here for the very first time! This box brings together all the recordings that the British conductor Sir Antonio Pappano (b.1959) made with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in the years from 2005 to 2022 for Warner Classics.

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