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Label:
  Telarc - http://www.telarc.com/
Serial:
  SACD-60042
Title:
  Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition etc. - Cleveland Orchestra/Maazel
Description:
  Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition, Night on Bald Mountain

Cleveland Orchestra
Lorin Maazel (conductor)
Track listing:
 
Genre:
  Classical - Orchestral
Content:
  Stereo
Media:
  Hybrid
Recording type:
  PCM
Recording info:
 

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Related titles: 5


 
Reviews: 3

Review by madisonears October 7, 2003 (2 of 2 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
Previous review says very eloquently what I feel about this classic recording. I have owned this same recording in all three formats--vinyl, CD, now SACD. Each has been an improvement over the previous iteration. This might not be the best performance--Reiner's is very special, indeed, with Karajan not far behind--but it is an exciting one due in no small part to the spectacular sound of this recording. If you have some weird phobia about buying only DSD recordings, you're missing out on a unique opportunity to experience the sheer power of sound. I have heard this piece performed live, and this is one of the very few recordings which actually rivals a concert hall event. There are NO digital artifacts, or any other artifacts. There is real music here, played by what truly appear to be real instruments. This represents one of those magical moments in recording when everything worked perfectly.

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Review by John Malcolm June 28, 2007 (2 of 5 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
First, this SACD is not surround sound. I know this may please some parts of the purist audio audience, but wanting to hear "Night On Bald Mountain" (I know it as "Night On A Bare Mountain") with demons et al coming at me from all directions was one of the main reasons I bought this disc (I actually like the Tomita versions of a lot of classical stuff, but they're not 5.1 unfortunately).

Anyway, the recording itself is a very high quality, er, recording with good dynamic range even on the CD layer. It's probably not a good idea to listen to the disc with the computer on (as I did when I first got the disc) as the quiet bits will be lost/overwhelmed by the fans etc in the computer!

I won't go through every track. Suffice to say that The Great Gate Of Kiev, as fitting to a finale, is powerful and majestic. This is definitely the single from the album!

Credit also must go to the booklet that comes with the disc.

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Review by JW May 23, 2003 (2 of 5 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
Moussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition was inspired by a memorial exhibition of water colours and drawings by his friend and architect, Victor Hartmann. It was written in 1873 and consists of ten parts, representing in essense a walk through an art gallery. Originally it was meant to be a solo piano work. Ravel orchestrated it and this is the version heard on the Telarc disc.

Moussorgski's work has been described as 'rugged' and I think that is a good description for the first piece - 'Night On Bald Mountain'. You can hear the wind swept mountain tops through this music. Both of these are well known works. 'Pictures' is a show piece with its grande finale in 'The Great Gate Of Kiev' and its familiar opening bars. It's a hugely enjoyable piece of classical music, rendered here with verve, tension, warmth and feeling.

This is one of the first SACD's I bought. It's one from Telarcs Soundstream series. Telarc's first digital recordings used the Soundstream recording system wich is based on a sampling rate of 50kHz. The conversion of this mastertape to DSD with its extended frequency - 100kHz compared to a CD's 44.1kHz - allows for the entire signal to be processed without the need for mathematical downconversion, hence better sound quality and less digital artefacts. It shows on this SACD with its expansive soundstage, it's analog sound and the natural way the notes decay into an acoustic space. The entire Soundstream series are worthwhile investigating further.

I cannot give you a perspective on these works I'm afraid, so I am referring to 'the experts'. Penguin and Gramophone list Maazel's performance with the Cleveland Orchestra as 'definitive'. 'Nuff said.

Jw

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Works: 2  

Modest Mussorgsky - A Night on the Bare Mountain
Modest Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition (arr. Ravel)