Notes and Editorial Reviews
These brilliant, hard-driving performances bring back (happy) memories of Russian orchestras of the 1960s and a style of playing that has all but disappeared. The performances aren't subtle, but then neither is the music, and my how Theodore Kuchar and Co. deliver the goods! The playing isn't perfect: in Pictures, Gnomus sounds a touch frantic, and the trumpets smear their rhythms in Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle; but incidental imperfections count for little next to Kuchar's "pedal to the metal" approach. Listen to the plangent wind sonorities in the second Promenade, to the pounding attack on The Hut on Fowl's Legs, or to the totally uninhibited brass and percussion at the conclusion of The Great Gate of Kiev. This is the real
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deal, an impression only confirmed by scorching accounts of both versions of A Night on Bald Mountain (Mussorgsky's original and Rimsky-Korsakov's better-known rewrite). The other two short pieces, the Hopak and Golitsin's Exile, simply put the icing on the cake. Don't let the cheap price, the not-terribly-well-known performers, or the brevity of this review prevent you from trying out this really exciting and very well recorded disc (probably the best sonics from this source thus far). You'll be missing a real treat if you do. [6/7/2003]
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com Read less
Works on This Recording
1.
Night on the Bare Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky
Conductor:
Theodore Kuchar
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Ukrainian National Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1866; Russia
Notes: Arranger: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
2.
Sorochintsy fair: Hopak by Modest Mussorgsky
Conductor:
Theodore Kuchar
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Ukrainian National Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: Russia
Notes: Composition written: Russia (1874 - 1880).
3.
Khovanshchina: Galitsyn's Journey by Modest Mussorgsky
Conductor:
Theodore Kuchar
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Ukrainian National Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1872-1880; Russia
4.
Pictures at an Exhibition for Orchestra (orchestrated by Ravel) by Modest Mussorgsky
Conductor:
Theodore Kuchar
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Ukrainian National Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1874/1922; Russia
Sound Samples
St. John's Night on Bald Mountain, "A Night on the Bare Mountain" (arr. N. Rimsky-Korsakov)
Sorochinskaya yarmarka (Sorochintsi Fair): Sorochintsy Fair: Gopak (Hopak)
Khovanshchina: Act V: Golitsin's Exile (arr. N. Rimsky-Korsakov)
St. John's Night on Bald Mountain, "A Night on the Bare Mountain" (original version): St. John's Night on Bald Mountain, "A Night on the Bare Mountain"
Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. M. Ravel): Promenade
Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. M. Ravel): I. Gnomus
Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. M. Ravel): Promenade
Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. M. Ravel): I. ll vecchio castello
Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. M. Ravel): Promenade
Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. M. Ravel): III. Tuileries
Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. M. Ravel): IV. Bydlo
Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. M. Ravel): Promenade
Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. M. Ravel): V. Ballet of the Chickens in their Shells
Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. M. Ravel): VI. Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle
Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. M. Ravel): VII. Limoges - The Market Place
Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. M. Ravel): VII. Catacombae
Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. M. Ravel): Cum mortius in Lingua morta
Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. M. Ravel): IX. The Hut on Fowls' Legs, "Baba Yaga"
Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. M. Ravel): X. The Great Gate of Kiev
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