Prom 16 - 26.07.17: Mussorgsky – Pictures at an Exhibition

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I've often been intrigued at the reactionary opinions of some music scholars/critics. It is as if every piece with a decent tune or exciting passage is somehow considered unworthy.

Just about every work that first caught my curious ear as a youth I've seen well and truly 'dissed' by critics. Rimsky's Scheherazade Suite, Tchaikovsky's Fourth, Ravel's Bolero, Dukas's Sorcerer's Apprentice, you name it I loved it but was then told the music is not worth listening to.

I still love them all and I think Ravel's Mussorgsky is also a super 'listen'.

And yet you comment on them so rarely on the Forum, reserving your posts to lightweight trolling.

I think those experts/critics must simply try a bit harder!

Ahh - but then you never know what those "expert/critics" think about you.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I was beginning to think that I was the only one over the age of ten who couldn't produce an orchestration better than Ravel's!

Don't put yourself down, cloughie - believe me, you've already produced a much better orchestration of the Musorgsky than did Ravel.

[cloughie]

Don't put yourself down, cloughie - believe me, you've already produced a much better orchestration of the Musorgsky than did Ravel.

I'm waiting for your arrangement of it ferney! I bet it is not a patch on Greg Lake's!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'm waiting for your arrangement of it ferney!

You'll hear my idea of the perfect "arrangement" of it whenever you hear a good performance of the piano original. Anything else is just filling in with a felt-tip.

I bet it is not a patch on Greg Lake's!

Now you're talking! A genuine re-thinking of Musorgsky's material, not just a lazy "let's give that tune to the saxophone" effort. If Ravel is the equivalent of colouring-in a Goya engraving with felt-tips, then ELP is closer to van Goch's re-imaginings of Millet - much more successful than Ravel. (But still, the original is best of all.)

[Bryn]

... Now you're talking! A genuine re-thinking of Musorgsky's material, not just a lazy "let's give that tune to the saxophone" effort. If Ravel is the equivalent of colouring-in a Goya engraving with felt-tips, then ELP is closer to van Goch's re-imaginings of Millet - much more successful than Ravel. (But still, the original is best of all.)

However, I still prefer the B. Bumble and the Stingers version of Nut Rocker to the ELP.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

[Serial_Apologist]

However, I still prefer the B. Bumble and the Stingers version of Nut Rocker to the ELP.

If you are coming to L'Klectik tonight, the seats are very hard, be warned!

[Bryn]

If you are coming to L'Klectik tonight, the seats are very hard, be warned!

If I get there earl enough I can grab the comfy chair or a place on the sofa.

[BBMmk2]

Essential Classics this morning, had Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, played rather masterfully by Steven Osborne. Very good recording this, c/w Prokovief's Vision Fugitives.

[cloughie]

You'll hear my idea of the perfect "arrangement" of it whenever you hear a good performance of the piano original. Anything else is just filling in with a felt-tip.

Yeller belly.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yeller belly.

That's a very jaundiced view!

I have a similarly hued abdomen when it comes to Beethoven's Op110, or Schubert's D959. I did make an arrangement of the last Movement of Webern's Op27 (for the same orchestra as his Op30) as a student exercise - but I was only twenty when I did this, and that's about the right age to be excused for such follies.

[BBMmk2]

Heard today about the translation of Mussorgsky's Pictures, on radio 3's Essential Classics, whether it should be From an, or at anExhibition. I always think that 'at an'is more accurate?

[Bryn]

You misheard. The "at" version was correctly identified as a common mistranslation. Hence the listing in the EC page as "from".

[jayne lee wilson]

I've often been intrigued at the reactionary opinions of some music scholars/critics. It is as if every piece with a decent tune or exciting passage is somehow considered unworthy.

Just about every work that first caught my curious ear as a youth I've seen well and truly 'dissed' by critics. Rimsky's Scheherazade Suite, Tchaikovsky's Fourth, Ravel's Bolero, Dukas's Sorcerer's Apprentice, you name it I loved it but was then told the music is not worth listening to.

I still love them all and I think Ravel's Mussorgsky is also a super 'listen'. I think those experts/critics must simply try a bit harder!

Yes...Dvorak & Tchaikovsky Serenades, Prokofiev's Classical Symphony, Bruch's 1st Violin Concerto, Bizet's L'Arlésienne,..... like the Mussorgsky/Ravel, they didn't become popular for nothing did they? Some of these I still enjoy, some not, but why they became-and-remain so popular (and attitudes towards them from various levels of musical knowledge/experience) is an interesting study in itself.

Anyway, along with the Tortelier orchestration of his Piano Trio, I think the Pictures are some of the best Ravel we have, in a fairly small orchestral oeuvre.

[BBMmk2]

You misheard. The "at" version was correctly identified as a common mistranslation. Hence the listing in the EC page as "from".

Oh yes, I know, but I was just offering my opinion, on how it sounds, to me.