Modest Mussorgsky - Stokowski's Arrangements (Matthias Bamert)

Information

Composer: Modest Mussorgsky

• A Night on the Bare Mountain (arr. Stokowski)
• Boris Godunov: Symphonic Synthesis (arr. Stokowski)
• Entr'acte to Act IV of Khovanshchina (arr. Stokowski)
• Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Stokowski)

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

Matthias Bamert, conductor

Date: 1995

Label: Chandos

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Review

In his excellent biography of Stokowski (Dodd and Mead: 1982) Oliver Daniel talks in detail of doubts expressed by various musicians that Stokowski’s orchestral transcriptions were entirely his own work. Certainly in the earlier days Lucien Cailliet (a clarinet player in the Philadelphia Orchestra) had a considerable hand in the Bach scores and he very likely did a good deal of the physical work of score-writing. Yet Cailliet himself stated that the conductor and he discussed each piece in detail first, and it is known that Stokowski was always amending the instrumentation in the course of performances. In any case, Cailliet’s association with the conductor ended in 1938 and while he might have contributed to the skilfully tailored 24-minute Boris Godunov synthesis (according to Daniel, dating from November 1936), the Pictures at an Exhibition (1939) was all Stokowski’s own and Night on Bald Mountain (the correct title, and nearer the original Russian meaning) was scored for Disney in 1940.

Anyone who has seen Fantasia finds the imagery in this last piece unforgettable and the powerfully plangent orchestration (especially the use of percussive effects) is in many respects nearer to Mussorgsky’s St John’s Night on the Bare Mountain than the Rimsky version. It sounds really superb here, as indeed does the Pictures – far preferable to the bloated Phase 4 sound of Stokowski’s own earlier recordings for Decca. The sombre power of the operatic synthesis, with its Kremlin bells and chanting monks and the haunted portrait of Boris himself, emerges with distinction. The Entr’acte from Khovanshchina is even finer, one of Stokowski’s most effective transcriptions, rich in sonority and played very movingly under Matthias Bamert.

I like the vividness of Stokowski’s Pictures too, particularly the way in which the orchestration is varied – the unison horns sing out splendidly near the climax of “Bydlo”, while to feature a cor anglais for the main theme in “The old castle” is quite as telling as Ravel’s saxophone, perhaps more so. Stokowski uses the violins rather more than Ravel, as instanced by the opening “Promenade”. The one moment when Ravel’s scoring is truly inspired is the interchange between Goldenburg and Schmuyle; Stokowski has the woodwind echo the solo trumpet and the effect, mockingly piquant though it is, becomes less bleatingly obsequious than Ravel’s version. Not surprisingly the “Catacombes” sequence makes a sumptuously weighty impact and “Baba-jaga” is searingly grotesque and bizarrely full of imaginative orchestral comments. Two numbers are omitted: “Tuileries” and “Limoges”, as Stokowski considered them “too French” and “not Mussorgskian”. (Edward Johnson’s authoritative notes suggest that the conductor did not have access to the original piano score, but if not, what did he use to make his transcription?) “The Great Gate of Kiev”, scored for massive forces, including bells and organ, makes a huge final apotheosis – how Stokowski must have revelled in its grand climax.'

-- Ivan March

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Modest Mussorgsky (21 March 1839 – 28 March 1881) is a Russian composer. Composing without training in his teens, he met several composers, with whom he later made up The Five, and received his first composition lessons from Mily Balakirev in 1857. His major works include the symphonic poem Night on Bald Mountain (1867), the great opera Boris Godunov (1868), and the famous piano cycle Pictures at an Exhibition (1874). His 65 songs describe vivid scenes of Russian life. After Mussorgsky’s death, his works were published in drastically edited form, purged of their distinctive starkness and unorthodox harmonies.

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Leopold Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British-born American conductor known for his flamboyant showmanship, the rich sonorities of his orchestras, and his influence as a popularizer of classical music. Stokowski gained an international reputation as musical director of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1912 to 1936. He directed the New York Philharmonic from 1946 to 1950 and the Houston Symphony from 1955 to 1962; in 1962 he formed the American Symphony Orchestra in New York City. Stokowski made three films with the Philadelphia Orchestra, including Walt Disney’s Fantasia (1940).

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Matthias Bamert (born July 5, 1942) is a Swiss conductor and composer. He studied music in his native Switzerland, as well as in Darmstadt and Paris, with Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Bamert's conducting career began in North America as an apprentice to George Szell and later as assistant conductor to Leopold Stokowski. He has served as music director of the Swiss Radio Orchestra from (1977–83), London Mozart Players (1993–2000), Western Australian Symphony (2003–07), Malaysian Philharmonic (2005–08), and the Sapporo Symphony (2018–2024). Bamert has made over 60 recordings.

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