If I Could Choose Only One Work By...MUSSORGSKY

[@goonbelly5841]

Well, if it's Godunov for Dave, then it's Godunov for me.

[@davidaltschuler9687]

Wow, great pun! I wonder if anybody else ever thought of that one??

[@grahamharfleet6026]

Brilliant!

[@artoflatraille]

I remember wonderful moments when I'd get together with Ronald LoPresti, my composition professor at the ASU School of Music long ago in his office, and we'd sit at the piano with a piano and voice reduction score of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, and play through the music and discuss what he was doing compositionally, dramatically and philosophically.

[@petterw5318]

A screaming masterpiece. At the end it's about powerful people sending other people to die for their personal ambitions, so it couldn't be more relevant.

[@leestamm3187]

Pictures at an Exhibition. I think it's one of the most interesting and exciting pieces ever written for piano. Many great pianists have provided a variety of interpretations to suit any taste.

[@melissaking6019]

The Coronation Scene from Boris Godunov is a masterpiece in the Rimsky-Korsakov version. In the recording by Cluytens and the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra brilliantly captures the menace of the opening theme: like a huge chiming, ticking clock spelling doom for Russia. Boris Christoff and the chorus sound magnificent, as do all the tolling church bells.

[@robertdandre94101]

i have tree works by mussorgsky i like...1- boris godunov ( karajan ,vienna recording), 2- nigth of the bald montain ,original version ( abbado two recording,stokowski too)....and finally,picture at an exibition......with....tomita,i love this version....!

[@edu21100]

the tomita version of picture at an exibition is incredible, one of my favoutites works of Tomita

[@felixvandenberghe9131]

Yes! The Tomita interpretation is incredible

[@marilynharris4118]

yes, but... if you "have to get past" the orchestration...!?! Pictures @ Exhibition for me! ❤ with or without orchestration, it's got undeniable INTEGRITY! 🎵🎶

[@bbailey7818]

The greatest of all Russian operas and probably in the top ten of all operas, certainly the tragedies; and nothing else is as tragedy-drenched and significant than this one. How could this not be the one?

[@barryguerrero6480]

The Coronation scene is like the greatest several moments in all of opera.

[@steveschwartz8944]

One of my top 5 operas.

[@toastonmitchell2636]

I'm working my way through the LP set I just got in the HPB clearance section. It's got George London in the title role. I can't wait to get to the end!!

[@maximisaev6974]

It's a classic set. You're going to love it, especially George London in the title role. I envy you this new experience.

[@HassoBenSoba]

Love the roughness of the original orchestration. Re: how we find ourselves having these discussions (your comments at 5:00) , I have two words: Cancrizans sucks. LR

[@ippolit23]

Couldn't agree more. I like the original orchestration. Yet, by comparison, the original version of "Night at the Bare Mountain" is indeed a terrible mess. BTW: Mussorgsky called "The Hugenottes" "Gubi noti" (bad notes).

[@Posturtle]

Since Mussorgsky is my 2nd favorite composer (after Mahler), the choice would be tough. Boris Godunov is a good choice. He cannibalized bits of his other pieces for newer ones, so if you like one bit it's hard to choose which one you like better.

[@vrixphillips]

i know he never finished it, but for me it's Khovanshchina. That ENDING! Amazing. Even though it's what, 98% Shostakovich? Mussorgsky still wrote [and iirc finished] the vocal score.

[@bbailey7818]

But most performances choose the Stravinsky ending, even where the rest is Shostakovich. We don't get the Rimsky version very often now.

[@iankemp1131]

Politely avoiding the reason that Mussorgsky didn't finish many works (as Bernard Shore put it, he drank himself to death). Boris Godunov obviously a fantastic and historic piece. Pictures is amazing though - a canvas on which unparalleled numbers of other composers have painted their own pictures by orchestration in different forms, all sorts of exotic instruments, brass bands, even Emerson lake and Palmer.