Musorgsky & Prokofiev: Pictures, Sarcasms & Visions

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Throughout this enthralling and warmly recorded performance, Osborne maximises colour and atmosphere, yet manages to achieve a freshness of approach without recourse to idiosyncratic mannerisms.... — BBC Music Magazine, March 2013 More…

Release Date: 28th Jan 2013
Catalogue No: CDA67896
Label: Hyperion
Length: 65 minutes

Presto Recording of the Week

21st January 2013
BBC Music Magazine

March 2013

Disc of the month
Gramophone Magazine

March 2013

Editor's Choice
Gramophone Awards

2013

Winner - Instrumental

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Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition

Work length35:38

$17.60

$24.00

$32.80

Steven Osborne (piano)

I. Promenade 1

Track length1:16

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Part 02: No 1. Gnomus

Track length2:47

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III. Promenade 2

Track length0:51

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Part 04: No 2. The Old Castle (Il vecchio castello)

Track length4:37

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V. Promenade 3

Track length0:24

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Part 06: No 3. Tuileries. Children quarrelling after play

Track length0:58

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Part 07: No 4. Bydło (A Polish Ox-cart)

Track length3:50

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VIII. Promenade 4

Track length0:49

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Part 09: No 5. Ballet of the unhatched chicks

Track length1:09

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Part 10: No 6. Two Polish Jews, one rich, the other poor (Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle)

Track length2:20

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XI. Promenade 5

Track length1:14

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Part 12: No 7. Limoges, the market place

Track length1:22

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Part 13: No 8a. Catacombae. Sepulchrum Romanum

Track length2:44

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Part 14: No 8b. Con mortuis in lingua mortua

Track length2:11

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Part 15: No 9. Baba Yaga (The hut on fowl's legs)

Track length3:19

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Part 16: No 10. The Great Gate of Kiev

Track length5:47

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Prokofiev: Sarcasms (5), Op. 17

Work length10:33

$5.50

$7.50

$10.25

Steven Osborne (piano)

I. Tempestoso

Track length1:55

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II. Allegro rubato

Track length1:09

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III. Allegro precipitato

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IV. Smanioso

Track length2:09

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V. Precipitosissimo

Track length3:37

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Prokofiev: Visions fugitives, Op. 22

Work length19:25

$22.00

$30.00

$41.00

Steven Osborne (piano)

I. Lentamente

Track length1:01

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II. Andante

Track length1:09

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III. Allegretto

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IV. Animato

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V. Molto giocoso

Track length0:22

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VI. Con eleganza

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VII. Pittoresco

Track length1:46

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VIII. Comodo

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IX. Allegretto tranquillo

Track length1:03

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X. Ridicolosamente

Track length0:48

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XI. Con vivacità

Track length1:07

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XII. Assai moderato

Track length0:54

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XIII. Allegretto

Track length0:28

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XIV. Feroce

Track length0:55

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XV. Inquieto

Track length0:50

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XVI. Dolente

Track length1:22

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XVII. Poetico

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XVIII. Con una dolce lentezza

Track length1:08

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XIX. Presto agitatissimo e molto accentuato

Track length0:43

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XX. Lento

Track length1:48

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Favourites, Modest Mussorgsky

James chooses some outstanding recordings of music by the Russian composer, Modest Mussorgsky.

Recording of the Week, Steven Osborne plays Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition

21st January 2013

Osborne’s journey through Mussorgsky’s gallery proves a highly intelligent, thoughtful interpretation that aims to be more than just a showy series of programmatic events.

Steven Osborne has become one of the most valuable pianists recording today. His recent complete Rachmaninov Preludes release was critically acclaimed as the greatest modern version since Ashkenazy. Now he turns to further cornerstones of the Russian repertoire in this recording of Musorgsky’s Pictures from an Exhibition (a work which has been in Osborne’s concert repertoire for many years), and two sets of Prokofiev’s miniatures.

Musorgsky’s masterpiece is one of the most popular programmatic works of the 19th century. Yet it is also a great pianistic challenge, with the spectacular textures of the climactic movement ‘The Great Gate of Kiev’ requiring the highest technical accomplishments.

David Fanning writes of Prokofiev’s Visions fugitives: ‘Prokofiev supplies snapshots of his most characteristic moods—sometimes grotesque, sometimes incantatory and mystical, sometimes simply poetic, sometimes aggressively assertive, sometimes so delicately poised as to allow the performer and the listener to make up their own minds.’ Osborne’s subtle, yet brilliant use of colour and characterization makes him the ideal performer of this set. Sarcasms—as befits the title—is an experimental, provocative work, performed by Osborne with biting humour.

Reviews

March 2013

Throughout this enthralling and warmly recorded performance, Osborne maximises colour and atmosphere, yet manages to achieve a freshness of approach without recourse to idiosyncratic mannerisms. Every movement is brilliantly characterised as a result of Osborne's imaginative approach to keyboard texture.

19th February 2013

Osborne's sensitive, dynamic recording is a joy...He gives us elegantly arched and flowing phrases, an effortless handle on the many virtuosic demands, and a nuanced, sympathetic touch that produces deft, light vivaciousness one moment and firm sobriety the next...In short, the beauty and variety of Mussorgsky's Pictures are presented in all their glory here

March 2013

here, once more, is an ideal blend of fidelity to the score, with a subtle and distinctive rather than overbearing musical personality. In the Musorgsky everything is as musicianly as it is technically immaculate....in the more weighty numbers, there is power without brutality so that what so easily degenerates into a mere uproar is so finely graded that you forget the essentially percussive nature of the writing.

20th May 2013

Following the piano score while listening to Osborne’s recording, one will see that the pianist meticulously carries out Mussorgsky’s instructions as to tempo, pedalling, and dynamics. However, more than that, he characterizes each of the movements very well, too.

21st January 2013

his care over the smallest details of phrasing and articulation throughout suggests a highly intelligent, thoughtful interpretation that aims to be more than just a showy series of programmatic events...The range of dynamics Osborne achieves is also really quite something, from the relentless fff of Bydlo to the hushed pianissimo of the catacombs in Con mortuis in lingua mortua.

17th February 2013

The great virtue of Osborne’s magisterial performance is that you never miss the orchestral upholstery — he conceives the work in quasi-orchestral terms, lavishing an astounding palette of colour and moods on the various pieces...The experimental Prokofiev pieces, Visions fugitives and Sarcasms, are dazzlingly done.

31st January 2013

He paces Mussorgsky's great suite faultlessly, never forcing anything, but ratcheting up the excitement notch by notch until it's all discharged in a sumptuous account of the final Great Gate of Kiev...Osborne is suitably laconic and severe in the Sarcasms, gentler and more suggestive in the Visions Fugitives; both are beautifully judged.

1st February 2013

Osborne strides out with healthy determination in the opening Promenade, and then gives a superb performance that shows how atmospheric Musorgsky’s maverick piano writing can be...Osborne has the sensitivity and inspiration, not to mention the pianistic resources, to bring each of the pictures to life in a way that has palpable perspective and subtle characterisation.

25th January 2013

resplendently startling, cobwebs blown off...From the beginning you sense Osborne’s dynamism and fresh imagination: I can’t recall when I last heard the introductory Promenade sound so purposeful. But the best jewels reside in the picture segments themselves...the technical challenges of the cycle’s last movements (Catacombs, Great Gate of Kiev and all) bring plenty of virtuoso excitements, vividly captured in the recording.

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Musorgsky & Prokofiev: Pictures, Sarcasms & Visions

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Favourites, Modest Mussorgsky

Recording of the Week, Steven Osborne plays Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition

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