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1
Promenade
Cradle Song
Total Time - 63:34
Irina Arkhipova, mezzo-soprano
The program of this album contains compositions which were not originally written for an orchestra. M. Ravel and D. Shostakovich devoted their efforts to orchestrate the pieces.
"Pictures at an Exhibition", a piano suite in ten movements, plus a recurring and varied Promenade theme, was completed by Mussorgsky in twenty days. It was inspired by his early 1874 visit to a posthumous exhibition of canvases by the talented artist and architect Victor Hartman, a close friend of the composer. The Hartman's works were boldly and originally converted into music for piano by Mussorgsky who enlarged and enriched their content. "Pictures at an Exhibition" was completed in 1874 and dedicated to V. Stasov. The brilliant orchestration of "Pictures at an Exhibition" was made by M. Ravel in 1922.
Vocal cycles "Sunless" and "Songs and Dances of Death" after A. Golenishchev-Kutuzov were composed by Mussorgsky in the middle of the 1870s and orchestrated by D. Shostakovich in 1962.
Mussorgsky worked on "Khovanshchina" from 1872 and left it incomplete. "Golitsyn Train" is a picturesque symphonic episode from Act IV portraying sent to exile disgraced Prince Golitsyn.
The score of "Solemn March" (Capture of Kars) was written on February 3, 1880 and performed at the Russian Musical Society.
M. Mussorgsky
(1839 - 1881)
Pictures at an Exhibition - 35:00
Instrumentation by M. Ravel
Gnome
Promenade
The Old Castle
Promenade
The Tuileries Garden (Quarrel of the Children After Play)
Bydlo (Ox Cart/Uncultured, Uncivilized Person)
Promenade
Ballet of the Unhatched Chickens
Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle (Two Jews, One Rich and One Poor)
Limoges. The Market Place (The Grand News)
Catacombs (The Roman Sepulchre)
Con Mortuis in Lingua Mortua (With Dead in a Dead Language)
The Hut of Baba Yaga (The Hut on Fowl's Legs)
The Great Gate of Kiev
2
Songs and Dances of Death - 19:41
Vocal Cycle, Lyrics by A. Golenishchev-Kutuzov
Orchestration by D. Shostakovich
Serenade
Trepak
The Field Marshal
3. Golitsyn Train ("Khovanshchina", Act IV) - 3:55
4. Solemn March (Capture of Kars) - 4:58
The USSR Symphony Orchestra
Conductor - Evgeni Svetlanov