Mussorgskij - Bilder einer Ausstellung | Stanislav Kochanovsky | WDR Sinfonieorchester

Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky and Maurice Ravel, performed by the WDR Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Stanislav Kochanovsky. Recorded live on 28 June 2024 in the Kölner Philharmonie. Modest Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition. Arrangement for orchestra by Maurice Ravel WDR Symphony Orchestra Stanislav Kochanovsky, conductor 00:00:18 Promenade 00:01:39 I. The Gnome 00:04:12 Promenade 00:05:08 II. The old castle 00:09:12 Promenade 00:09:43 III The Tuileries 00:10:48 IV. Bydlo 00:13:37 Promenade 00:14:26 V. Ballet of the little cakes 00:15:41 VI Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle 00:18:05 VII The market place of Limoges 00:19:24 VIII. The catacombs 00:21:31 Cum Mortuis in Lingua Mortua 00:23:28 IX. The hut of Baba-Jaga 00:26:46 X. The great gate of Kiev ► More about the symphony orchestra, concerts and current live streams can be found at https://sinfonieorchester.wdr.de ► The WDR Symphony Orchestra on Facebook Facebook: wdrsinfonieorchester ► Further concerts and introductions to works from the world of classical music, symphonic crossover, choral singing and concerts for children can also be found in the ARD Mediathek: https://www.ardmediathek.de/klassik Introduction to the work: Respighi's teacher Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was for many years a member of the group of Russian composers that became known as ‘The Mighty Bunch’. One of his comrades-in-arms was Modest Mussorgsky. Through his ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’, he is the best known of this group today. The story has often been told: The declared aim of the ‘The Mighty Bunch’ was an art music that was to be developed from Russian folk music. Particularly in their initial phase, the Five rejected compositional techniques that conformed too closely to the rules, as they felt this restricted their imagination. Modest Mussorgsky was particularly strict: throughout his life, he refused to learn the ‘professional’ art of musical composition. This had both advantages and disadvantages. It is unlikely that a classically trained composer would have been able to devise such a vivid piano cycle as ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ with its naturalistic miniatures. However, Mussorgsky reached his limits with larger forms and the orchestration of his works. It is no coincidence that Rimsky-Korsakov, Igor Stravinsky and later Dmitri Shostakovich retouched his orchestrations. Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was by far the most masterful orchestrator of Mussorgsky's music. His version of ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ is even considered one of the most successful orchestral scores in the history of music. It has almost been forgotten that Rimsky-Korsakov had already orchestrated two movements of the piano cycle and that his pupil Mikhail Tushalov had orchestrated seven of the ten pictures. Ravel received the commission for his version Ravel received the commission for his version in 1922 from the Russian conductor Sergei Koussevitzky for his newly founded Paris concert series. And Ravel, whom Stravinsky once described as the ‘Swiss watchmaker’ among composers, took on the task with his characteristic precision and immense creativity. To this day, his version of ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ is one of the most popular pieces in the concert repertoire. Text: Otto Hagedorn