beckyharp (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

I have to agree with you. I wish he wouldn't fluctuate the tempo too much. It sounds as though he's sightreading. Or maybe I'm just biased as to the why the orchestra I played with played it-I thought we sounded beautiful on it, and this just seemed too wavy, if that even makes sense.

beckyharp (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

I played this with an orchestra last night-it is so interesting to hear this in piano version (even though it's the original)

cckchang (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

It was orchestrated before Ravel orchestrated it. Ravel's orchestration is just the most famous and most frequently performed and recorded orchestration.

rabengeraun (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

Always a most individual interpreter but fascinating; I love his audio recording of this and am grateful for the posting

slobone (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

It used to be thought that Mussorgsky was such a poor orchestrator that his works needed to be re-orchestrated. The Rimsky-Korsakov version of Boris Gudonov was the standard one for years. But recently Mussorgsky's original version has been revived, and it works just fine. This piece of course was written for piano and wasn't orchestrated till Ravel got the commission for it.

tawtsai (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

I agree with you completely, it is not easy for everyone to understand his interpretation of this particular piece/performance, one really has to understand the content of the music to get what he is trying to deliver. However, once the listener understand the images of each picture, it is just impossible to compare any other performances' perfection to Pletnev's performance of this piece! He always find somthing beyond the printed notes yet not contradicting the composer's original intentions!

zaichishku (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

This music is extremely sophisticated... and Pletnev dignifies it with his profound musicianship.

asorescu (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

Pletnev's playing is always exquisite... not for everybody... I would say for people who truly understand the depth of music in a piece, especially in complex ones.

cydcharisse08 (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

actually Mussorgsky could read notes, otherwise how to compose? however he wasn't schooled enough - he did not study harmony for example (actually was against it, as he believed it goes against creativity), so it would take him very long to put chords to a melody - kind of a struggle. So he became very inventive in his manner of writing music, besides being enormously talented. In his operas (especially Boris Godunov) he came up with new a musical approache, never used before.

scottbos68 (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

look it up its true