Musorgsky CDs

You can get Musorgsky's complete works, or almost, on fifteen or so CDs (six sets). What I've got so far is listed below, along with a couple of things I would like to get. Everything here is recommended, but this list list is a work in progress. There's a lot of stuff I haven't heard, and I welcome recommendations of other performances superior to the ones I've listed: emersonj@gmail.com. Except for "The Marriage", which I've never seen listed on CD, virtually everything of interest is on this page.

I have no special love for Amazon but theirs is the most convenient way of listing CDs.

1. Panorama, Deutsche Gramaphon Gesellschaft

"Pictures at an Exhibition", piano, Richter; "Pictures at an Exhibition" (Ravel version, Chicago Symphony); "Night on Bald Mountain"; ten songs including "Songs and Dances of Death"; excerpts from "Khovanshchina" and "Boris Godunov".

2. Boris Godunov

Rostropovich conducts Boris Godunov, 1872 version, Musorgsky orchestration (Lloyd Jones edition). This is something of a composite version, with some deleted passages restored.

3. Boris Godunov (1869 and 1872 versions)

Kirov Opera, Gergiev. Probably the place to start, certainly if you want to compare the 1869 and 1872 versions. 1869 is probably the Musorgsky orchestration, 1872 seems to be the Rimsky-Korsakoff version; notes are not clear on this point. (Amazon reviews of three versions of Boris.)

4. Khovanshchina

 Bolshoi, DVD. I rarely watch DVDs but with operas it certainly helps. I thought that the acting and staging were excellent, especially the clerk (Vitaly Vlasov). There have been some very significant cuts in this version.

5. Boris Christoff, Songs by Musorgsky

24 songs including the cycles "The Nursery", "Songs and Dances of Death", and "Sunless". Christoff is highly admired as a Musorgsky interpreter. (Christoff, Complete Songs of Mussorgsky should be good too.)

6. Sorochintsy Fair

Musorgsky's incomplete opera based on a Gogol story. Out of print and not to be found.

7. Sylvia Carbonel, Mussorgsky's Complete Piano Works

"Pictures at an Exhibition" plus 17 other pieces, only a few of which are of equal quality. Mostly for completists.

8. Abbado conducts Mussorgsky

Miscellaneous choral and symphonic fragments and minor pieces. The most interesting of them is the first version of "Night on Bald Mountain", which is significantly different than the later version (heard on "Panorama" above). Otherwise, mostly for completists.

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Original materials copyright John J Emerson

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