Bela BARTOK
Concerto for Orchestra
Modest Petrovitch MUSSORGSKY
Pictures at an Exhibition - orchestrated Maurice Ravel
Boston Symphony Orchestra
- Serge Koussevitsky
broadcast December 1944 (Bartok) & 1943 (Mussorgsky) from Symphony Hall,
Boston
Naxos 8.110105 [59.29]
AAD
Crotchet
This is a disc in Naxos's historical series of great conductors. Based upon
the evidence of this disc, there is absolutely no doubt of the excellence
of Koussevitsky as a conductor, or indeed of his legacy of commissions left
to us through his Koussevitsky Foundation. The Bartok Concerto for Orchestra
is one of the cornerstones of 20th Century orchestral repertoire,
and one can only regret the Bartok had so little time left after completing
it, since as with Mozart, who knows what he might have gone on to write had
he survived longer.
The Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition, another of Koussevitsky's commissions,
is one of those works which have been transcribed so expertly from piano
solo to full symphony orchestra that one would never guess the original source
of the material, effective as that is. Both works need virtuoso playing and
recording for them to make maximum impact, and whilst the former is in abundance,
the latter is sorely lacking. Rob Cowan's sleeve notes wax extremely lyrical
about the conductor and his many abilities, and rightly so, but tend to ignore
the fact that one has to be very, very tolerant with the sound quality and
level of virtuosity if any idea can be obtained of just how good Koussevitsky
was.
Both works are played in cut versions, the Bartok with the earlier shorter
coda to the finale, and the Mussorgsky with four sections omitted.
The performances, as I have said are superb, one would have to go a very
long way to hear such incandescent spine tingling life to the playing as
Koussevitsky achieves here. Every so often it is clearly evident that the
famous Boston Symphony Orchestra was not the technically superb instrument
it was to become in later years. The other problem with the disc is the quality
of the recording, which I suppose is understandable given its age. Still,
there are many CDs around of a similar age where the sound no where near
as bad as on this disc. The Bartok is not as good as the Mussorgsky
There is also an excellent synopsis of both works, in the case of the Bartok,
a timed analysis of all five movements which I found enlightening, so full
marks to Naxos for commissioning these for our pleasure.
I guess you must decide for yourself whether or not you can tolerate dim,
distorted sound with a high level of surface noise, allied to a quality of
playing which also is much less than we would get today. If you can, there
are many revelations to be beheld here.
John Phillips
Performance
recording
