Pictures At An Exhibition

Great CD

Although many others (including Stokowski) had tried their hand at it, Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is so universally famous and popular that you'd easily think the composition had been originally written as an orchestral piece by a composer called Mussorgsky-Ravel (a cousin of Rimsky-Korsakov, no doubt).But of course it ain't so. Pictures at an Exhibition are first a piano cycle composed by Mussorgsky in 1874, a series of paintings in music really, so colorful and evocative that it is difficult to resist the urge of adding orchestral colors to them, as Ravel did (but he wasn't the first) in 1922, on a commission from conductor Serge Koussevitzky.All that to say that Tomita's arrangement is as legitimate as anybody's. In fact, it is even more, because it is so good, fun and even funny, entertaining, inventive to the point of being outlandish.One of the nice aspects of Tomita's arrangement is that, unlike many of the orchestrations that were made after 1922, it is entirely independent of Ravel's. The synthesized sounds he uses are sometimes derived from acoustic instruments (the quasi harpsichord recurs, various bell-like sounds, one sound in The Old Castle that I can only describe as "whistling" - not flute), sometimes purely electronic, but more often they mix timbres to the point of making any single instrument unrecognizable (is it a quasi balalaïka that I hear at the begining of The Old Castle?). He uses to the full the stereo separation.Tomita also has a great sense of humor in his choice of timbres: try the quasi-flexatone at the beginning of gnomus, or the spooky quasi-ondes martenot right after, reminiscent of the cheap horror movies from the Hammer films, or the Ballet of the Chicks in their Shells - that's exactly what you hear, and it's hilarious. The use of vocal chorus, as in the first Promenade, sometimes gives the music a sci-fi aspect - not that it is out-of-sync with the whole project. There is also the use of a humming, basso solo voice - very Japanese, if I rely on my culture of Japanese films - in a number of pieces (The Old Castle, Bydlo, Catacombs) that is very intriguing.This is an almost exclusive listener of classical music writing, not someone coming from pop music. I'm not sure listeners grown on Mussorgsky's original cycle and Ravel's orchestration won't be shocked by this - not those with open ears, but not all listeners of classical music have open ears, and some like to rest on their old listening habits and not be bullied out of them. But the value of Tomita's arrangement is precisely that it bullies the classical music listener out of his old listening habits, and return something of the original impact of Mussorgky's Pictures, which has become somewhat dulled by, precisely, those very listening habits (the same is true with, say, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, and even Beethoven's 5th Symphony - hey, what a loss that Tomita didn't do an arrangement of the latter, and of the complete Rite - there is an excerpt in the album  Tomita: Live At Linz 1984: The Mind of the Universe ). Tomita's Pictures are a feast for the ear, sometimes a gaudy one, as was for the eye, presumably, the Viktor Hartmann exhibition that gave Mussorgsky the incentive to compose his cycle.The only drawback then is the short, LP-derived TT of 37 minutes. Hey, with such entertaining stuff, you want more. You will find this CD cheaper under its other entries:  Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition - Tomita , Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition . They are the Western editions, not, as here, a more recent Japanese remastering. The sonics were already excellent. I don't know how the new one compares. Now it's your choice if you want to shell out so many bucks for the potential of marginal-to-significant hi-fi improvement. Not me: I'd rather buy the Tomita CDs I'm still missing, for as cheap as I can find them.

Although many others (including Stokowski) had tried their hand at it, Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is so universally famous and popular that you'd easily think the composition had been originally written as an orchestral piece by a composer called Mussorgsky-Ravel (a cousin of Rimsky-Korsakov, no doubt).But of course it ain't so. Pictures at an Exhibition are first a piano cycle composed by Mussorgsky in 1874, a series of paintings in music really, so colorful and evocative that it is difficult to resist the urge of adding orchestral colors to them, as Ravel did (but he wasn't the first) in 1922, on a commission from conductor Serge Koussevitzky.All that to say that Tomita's arrangement is as legitimate as anybody's. In fact, it is even more, because it is so good, fun and even funny, entertaining, inventive to the point of being outlandish.One of the nice aspects of Tomita's arrangement is that, unlike many of the orchestrations that were made after 1922, it is entirely independent of Ravel's. The synthesized sounds he uses are sometimes derived from acoustic instruments (the quasi harpsichord recurs, various bell-like sounds, one sound in The Old Castle that I can only describe as "whistling" - not flute), sometimes purely electronic, but more often they mix timbres to the point of making any single instrument unrecognizable (is it a quasi balalaïka that I hear at the begining of The Old Castle?). He uses to the full the stereo separation.Tomita also has a great sense of humor in his choice of timbres: try the quasi-flexatone at the beginning of gnomus, or the spooky quasi-ondes martenot right after, reminiscent of the cheap horror movies from the Hammer films, or the Ballet of the Chicks in their Shells - that's exactly what you hear, and it's hilarious. The use of vocal chorus, as in the first Promenade, sometimes gives the music a sci-fi aspect - not that it is out-of-sync with the whole project. There is also the use of a humming, basso solo voice - very Japanese, if I rely on my culture of Japanese films - in a number of pieces (The Old Castle, Bydlo, Catacombs) that is very intriguing.This is an almost exclusive listener of classical music writing, not someone coming from pop music. I'm not sure listeners grown on Mussorgsky's original cycle and Ravel's orchestration won't be shocked by this - not those with open ears, but not all listeners of classical music have open ears, and some like to rest on their old listening habits and not be bullied out of them. But the value of Tomita's arrangement is precisely that it bullies the classical music listener out of his old listening habits, and return something of the original impact of Mussorgky's Pictures, which has become somewhat dulled by, precisely, those very listening habits (the same is true with, say, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, and even Beethoven's 5th Symphony - hey, what a loss that Tomita didn't do an arrangement of the latter, and of the complete Rite - there is an excerpt in the album  Tomita: Live At Linz 1984: The Mind of the Universe ). Tomita's Pictures are a feast for the ear, sometimes a gaudy one, as was for the eye, presumably, the Viktor Hartmann exhibition that gave Mussorgsky the incentive to compose his cycle.The only drawback then is the short, LP-derived TT of 37 minutes. Hey, with such entertaining stuff, you want more. You will find this CD cheaper under its other entries:  Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition - Tomita , Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition . They are the Western editions, not, as here, a more recent Japanese remastering. The sonics were already excellent. I don't know how the new one compares. Now it's your choice if you want to shell out so many bucks for the potential of marginal-to-significant hi-fi improvement. Not me: I'd rather buy the Tomita CDs I'm still missing, for as cheap as I can find them.

Purists turn their noses up at Tomita. James Galway was somewhat dismissive of him in a programme he made years ago when he visited Japan. Which all goes to prove - what do they know? Isao Tomita was one of the greatest exponents and innovators of electronic music and his recordings from the 1970s stand the test of time. Pictures at an Exhibition, recorded in 1974, still sounds fresh and dynamic over forty years after it was recorded. The sheer amount of work that must have gone in to generating and recording these sounds, given the technology of the day, is mighty impressive. But what of the music itself? As another Amazon reviewer has commented, this is a creepy, spooky reading of the piece, it can generate goose-bumps and bring up the hairs on the neck. It is as valid an interpretation of Pictures at an Exhibition as any orchestral or piano interpretation. More than that, this is electronic music that genuinely engages the listener on an emotional level.

Distinctly quirky in places but still an interesting listen & one I expect to return to & re-experience now & again (but not quite as often as his superb version of The Planets).

Excelente calidad del descovy empaque, a precio razonable. Llegó mucho antes de lo ofrecido.Recomiendo ampliamente a este proveedor, pues ya he tenido otras experiencias similares con el.

Ich hatte das Album als Vinyl und war begeistert das es dies nun auch als CD gibt. Das Cover ist aus irgend einem Grund nicht das gleiche wie auf der Vinyl.

Ich kenne Sie aus dem Vinyl-Zeitalter und finde diese elektronische Vertonung genial...