Conference cookie::notes$archive:cd_v1

Recommendation from the Penguin Guide, which I have found to be quite
reliable, especially when their pro-Brit bias doesn't get in the way: 

Telarc CD 80042:  Night on the Bare Mountain, Pictures at an Exhibition.  
Cleveland Orchestra, Lorin Maazel.

"All current versions of this coupling rest under the shadow of the 
magnificently recorded Telarc disc, one of the first great successes of 
the early digital era.  The quality of the recording is apparent at the 
very opening of Night on the Bare Mountain in the richly sonorous 
presentation of the deep brass and the sparkling yet unexaggerated 
percussion..."

They give the Davis version on Philips one star, and the Ansermet version 
on London two stars.  The Telarc disc gets three stars and a CD Accolade
symbol.

- Dick Binder

    I have the Telarc version and like it.  There are two versions
    of the disc available.  One with an Index'd 'Pictures' and one
    without.  It's worth it to look for the Index'd version.

    =ken

Unless I'm mistaken, the Maazel recording is the AUTHENTIC score, before 
Rimsky-Korsakav got his hands on it and turned it into an entirely different 
work.  I'll have to check my copy when I get home; it's a fine reading and is 
much more slavic sounding than most.


				Mark

    RE: -1
    
    I believe the Maazel CD has the R-K version of "Night...".  I remember
    that Claudio Abaddo put a a record of the original Mussorgsky version,
    which is called "St. John's Night on Bald Mountain", a few years
    ago.  The Original version is entirely different from the R-K
    version.   R-K took the melodies and little else.   I would say that
    the original it much more grotesque ( in a positive sense ) than the 
    version that is performed today. 
    
    RE: .0 
    
    For a really awful performance of "Night on Bald Mountain" try the
    Mata/Dallas/RCA version.      
    
    -John
    
    -John
            
    

The Telarc/Maazel version is indeed the Rimsky-Korsakov arrangement.  The 
Abbado recording of the original version, mentioned in .-1, is (or was) on
LP and cassette, RCA numbers ARL 13988 and ARK 13988 respectively.  This
record is probably not still in the catalog - the '84 edition of the 
Penguin lamented that it had definitely been withdrawn in the UK.  Check
Schwann to see if it's available in the US. 

If anyone has a copy in excellent condition of the Abbado, that she's
willing to part with for a reasonable price, I'm in the market.

- Dick

    Dammed if I can remember where I read it, but there are sound effects
    CD's available too (screams, chain rattling, lonesome train whistles).
    I seem to recall that some label just introduced this disk -think
    I read it in the latest issue of Digital Audio.
    
    Have you considered some of the music on Fantasia? "Night on Bald
    Mountain" is on this disc, as well as other "appropriate" Halloween
    sounds......
    
    
                               Back Into The Crypt,
    
                                                  Ken
    
    "I was working in the lab, late one night
     When my eyes beheld an eerie sight......"
    

    Re: .0
    The original coupling of "Night on Bald Mountain" with the "Polovtsian
    Dances" (I don't remember how to spell it either--it's the ballet
    music from Borodin's "Prince Igor") is by Eugene Ormandy and the
    Philadelphia Orchestra on (shudder) Columbia Records' Masterworks
    label. They were the flip side of the "1812 Overture". As I recall,
    Borodin's "In the Steppes of Central Asia" is also on the record.
    I have the Lp of this in excellent codition and would make you a
    cassette--except that my recorder broke down a few weeks ago. I
    have no idea whether this album has been re-released on CD, but
    you can check in the Schwann catalog.
    
    Good luck,
    Jack Truslow