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As AB has pointed out, reviewing previous volumes in this series (2/95, 12/95 and 12/96), Leiferkus enjoys himself immensely with Mussorgsky’s songs; and this is infectious. The range of colour he displays would be self-indulgent, were it not for the fact that the nature of many of them demands a dramatic identification. Moreover, the artist who can lull the senses with such beautiful warmth of tone in Night or Evening song or The wanderer has not only the right but really the duty to throw it to one side for the bawling of the energetically faithless wife in Gopak (with wonderfully exuberant playing by the ever-admirable Semion Skigin), or the termagant’s screeching tirade of “Akh, ti” at the homecoming drunkard (clearly long past realizing what is breaking over his head as the torrent of abuse reaches climax after climax). There is a sharper edge and a lightening of tone for The magpie, and a very cleverly judged irony in the sweetness as in Gathering mushrooms it dawns on the listener that the crop being picked is poisoned, and destined for use in the near future. The taunting of the old woman in The ragamuffin, one of Mussorgsky’s most brilliant tours de force, is a real piece of virtuosity, above all because Leiferkus and Skigin exactly understand the nature of the realism that produces such original and unforgettable music and have the technique and artistry to bring it fully to life. This makes regrettable the one questionable artistic decision in the recital, when Leiferkus sings the first verse of Child’s song in mock-childish tones, the second with the rueful gravity of a grown-up, even adding a lugubrious sigh. The poem can stand the meaning this confers on it, but realism here falls into mimicry, and there is a crucial difference.

With the towering exception of Pictures at an Exhibition, Mussorgsky’s piano music is of little account, consisting of either salon musings like Une larme and Meditation or genre pieces with some Russian melodic colouring. The most interesting is the Intermezzo in modo classico, inspired by a peasant scene and demonstrating that he was only really inspired by words or imagery. Vovka Ashkenazy plays them gracefully and lightly. But it is for the songs that this splendid record is to be enjoyed.

-- Gramophone [5/1997]