Rimsky-Korsakoff Archive

MUSSORGSKY: Pictures at an Exhibition; A Night on Bald Mountain; TCHAIKOVSKY: Set. fr. Swan Lake – Vienna Philharmonic/ Dudamel – DGG

by Audiophile Audition | Jan 30, 2017 | Classical CD Reviews

Dudamel traverses familiar Russian territory, convincing and affectionate, but rarely with new insight.  MUSSORGSKY: Pictures at an Exhibition; A Night on Bald Mountain; TCHAIKOVSKY: Waltz from Swan Lake, Op. 20 – Vienna Philharmonic Orch./ Gustavo Dudamel – DGG 479 6297, 50:51 (12/2/16) [Distr. by Universal] ***:  Whenever a new recording emerges of an old chestnut, my hackles rise, assuming the performance to be guilty until it proves itself innocent. So be it. Gustavo Dudamel – a protégé of another literalist conductor, Claudio Abbado – has taken on the Mussorgsky 1874 Pictures as orchestrated by Maurice Ravel (rec. April 2016) partially to give exposure to the “Superar” Project, which provides free music lessons for children from Vienna’s Tenth District. Pictures of the children grace the album insert cover and booklet. While I cannot deny the instrumental versatility of the Vienna Philharmonic players and the pungent acoustical resonance captured by Recording Engineer Rene Moeller and Teldex Studio, Berlin, I am not sufficiently overwhelmed to recommend this performance over my perennial favorites Bernstein, Reiner, and Toscanini. Certainly the individual colors in this performance, as in the Vienna Philharmonic’s excellent bassoon solos, captivate my ear. The bass fiddles in Bydlo have rarely resonated so […]