Boris Godunov

[Petrushka]

Following retirement and having more time on my hands due to lockdown I've been expanding my meagre opera collection on CD over the past year or two. I have a question regarding Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov which I currently have in the VPO/Karajan set on Decca.

The Karajan is of the completion by Rimsky-Korsakov and I think that the majority of recordings use this. However, Shostakovich did his own orchestration and I'm wondering if any available recordings use his version.

Does anyone know?

[Bryn]

Following retirement and having more time on my hands due to lockdown I've been expanding my meagre opera collection on CD over the past year or two. I have a question regarding Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov which I currently have in the VPO/Karajan set on Decca.

The Karajan is of the completion by Rimsky-Korsakov and I think that the majority of recordings use this. However, Shostakovich did his own orchestration and I'm wondering if any available recordings use his version.

Does anyone know?

There was a recording on CD conducted by D. Miladinovic but finding a copy would seem to be a very difficult job. The orchestration has been described as more Shostakovich then Mussorgsky. See http://www.musicweb-international.co...nov_survey.pdf

Aha:

[Petrushka]

There was a recording on CD conducted by D. Miladinovic but finding a copy would seem to be a very difficult job. The orchestration has been described as more Shostakovich then Mussorgsky. See http://www.musicweb-international.co...nov_survey.pdf

Aha:

Thanks, Bryn, that's excellent and some interesting reading to do in the Musicweb survey. In Testimony Shostakovich tells at some length of his desire to orchestrate Boris and the work he duly carried out. I've long had a wish to hear it. We seem to have pretty much everything on disc/download these days so there's room for an enterprising company to rectify this omission and provide a modern recording.