Find music by

Sign up for our newsletter




Mussorgsky · Ravel · Balakirev

Composers
Genres
Performers
Instruments
Periods
Label
Catalogue numberBIS-1580 SACD
Release date2008-04-15
Discs1
Orig. sample rate88200Hz
Total time65:16

Gramophone: Editor's Choice.

Partly on the basis of his several discs on BIS, Freddy Kempf enjoys a reputation as an explosive and physical performer but also as a highly sensitive artist. His performance of Chopin’s Etudes received high praise, for instance in American Record Guide: ‘At 27, Kempf has attained something most pianists strive for over an entire lifetime ... This release can justly take its place among the very finest recordings of Chopin's Etudes. The set of Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes was equally well received: ‘Kempf captures the essence of Liszt in playing of wistful nostalgia, yearning passion, with arpeggios and cadenzas that shimmer and scintillate’ (International Piano). The programme on the present release bears witness to Liszt’s contribution to piano writing: three central works in the great virtuoso literature for solo piano with qualities in terms of characterisation and timbre that have led them all to become the objects of orchestral arrangements – in the case of Mussorgsky’s Pictures numerous times. Pictures from an Exhibition was composed in only three weeks in 1874, in a sort of creative frenzy following the death of Mussorgsky’s friend, the painter and architect Viktor Hartmann. Some of the pictures by Hartmann that inspired Mussorgsky have now disappeared; those that have survived can be seen at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. But to search for a direct correspondence between the pictures and their musical counterparts would be pointless: Mussorgsky sought to portray Hartmann’s world more intuitively. Balakirev’s Islamey was composed five years earlier, and is based on two themes. The first, called ‘Islamey’, is a melody from north Caucasia, and the second is a Tatar melody from the Crimea. It was long regarded as the most difficult work in the entire piano repertory, and in fact, when Ravel 1908 composed Scarbo, the third movement of Gaspard de la Nuit, he specifically wanted to write something that would be even more difficult. Based, like the other two movements, on a prose poem by the French fantastic writer Aloysius Bertrand, Scarbo is the depiction of an evil spirit of the night, while Ondine describes the futile love of a water nymph for the poet, and Le Gibet a hanged man and his gallows.
 
  • STUDIO QUALITY
    File formats included in STUDIO QUALITY
    • FLAC 24-bit Stereo
    • FLAC 24-bit Surround 5.0
    • FLAC 16-bit Stereo
    • MP3 Stereo
  • CD QUALITY | MP3
    File formats included in CD QUALITY | MP3
    • FLAC 16-bit Stereo
    • MP3 Stereo
$ 15.23
 
Extra material for download
 
 
  Composer: Mussorgsky, Modest
  Pictures from an Exhibition 32:33
01 Promenade 01:12 $ 0.29 USD
02 1. Gnomus. Sempre vivo 02:28 $ 0.59 USD
03 (Promenade). Moderato commodo assai e con delicatezza 00:41 $ 0.16 USD
04 2. Il vecchio castello. Andantino molto cantabile e con
dolore
04:18 $ 1.03 USD
05 (Promenade). Moderato non tanto, pesamente 00:23 $ 0.09 USD
06 3. Tuileries (Disputes d’enfants après jeux) 01:01 $ 0.24 USD
07 4. Bydło. Sempre moderato, pesante 02:43 $ 0.65 USD
08 (Promenade). Tranquillo 00:41 $ 0.16 USD
09 5. Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks. Scherzino vivo, leggiero 01:16 $ 0.30 USD
10 6. Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuÿle. Andante. Grave –
energico
02:03 $ 0.49 USD
11 Promenade. Allegro giusto, nel modo russico, poco sostenuto 01:13 $ 0.29 USD
12 7. Limoges. Le marché (La grande nouvelle). Allegretto
vivo, sempre scherzando
01:15 $ 0.30 USD
13 8. Catacombae (Sepulcrum romanum). Largo 02:43 $ 0.65 USD
14 Con mortuis in lingua mortua. Andante non troppo, con
lamento
01:57 $ 0.47 USD
15 9. The Hut on Hen’s Legs (Baba-Yaga). Allegro con brio,
feroce
03:00 $ 0.72 USD
16 10. The Bogatyr Gate (in the Capital, in Kiev). Allegro alla
breve – Maestoso – Con grandezza
05:39 $ 1.36 USD
 
 
  Composer: Ravel, Maurice
  Gaspard de la Nuit 22:22
17 1. Ondine. Lent 06:26 $ 1.54 USD
18 2. Le Gibet. Très lent 06:28 $ 1.55 USD
19 3. Scarbo. Modéré 09:28 $ 2.27 USD
 
 
  Composer: Balakirev, Mily
20 Islamey – Oriental Fantasy. Presto con fuoco 08:32 $ 2.05 USD
 
  Album total 65:16
PianoKempf, Freddy
ComposerBalakirev, Mily
Mussorgsky, Modest
Ravel, Maurice

Daily Deal
Top downloads
eClassical.com is a completely virtual record label and a secure online store open 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Customers and visitors can download classical music in high quality FLAC or MP3 and find out more about classical music.

Start page    24 Bit FAQ    Assistance    About eClassical    Classical News