Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (piano version) (Tableaux d'une exposition, Kartinki s vystavki)

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.

Rising star Alice Sara Ott’s new recording documents her summer 2012 rite of passage debut at the prestigious White Nights Festival.

Alice Sara Ott’s challenging programme centers upon Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Her virtuosic technique and youthful brilliance deliver the majesty, colours and spontaneity that this music requires. The power, passion and beauty which Alice Sara brings to Schubert’s thrilling Sonata No. 17 is insightful and memorable.

Her stellar career coincides with the enthusiastic international acclaim her Deutsche Grammophon recordings and performances garner. As the Guardian writes: “... it was good to hear live the qualities that shine through on Ott’s recordings – the crystalline tone and prodigious range of colour, the perfectly even, crisp technique ...”

The pianist Alexis Weissenberg also died in 2012. He made his breakthrough in Salzburg during the Karajan era and is now represented in the Salzburg FESTIVAL DOCUMENTS with his solo recital of 1972. His evening began with Ravel’s 'Tombeau de Couperin', played transparently and with a highly flexible touch. Even the technically trickiest passages of Schumann’s C-major 'Fantasy' were embedded organically and convincingly into the musical flow of the work.

Mussorgsky’s 'Pictures at an Exhibition' could hardly be played more effectively or with more colour than in Weissenberg’s interpretation. This work ended the 'official' part of his recital, though there followed many surprising encores, which can all be heard on these two CDs (for the price of one) and thus round off this memento of the artist.

Musorgsky’s musical tribute to the painter and architect Viktor Hartmann has become his most familiar work, and this recording presents the original piano version of Pictures at an Exhibition. It is an extraordinary work, combining intense demands for virtuoso technique with an inexorable momentum which keeps what is fundamentally an impressionistic work in many movements moving towards its grand climax with the ‘Great Gate of Kiev’ finale.

Prokofiev is one of those composers who would constantly reuse material from one work in another. However, although the Ten Pieces from Romeo and Juliet may seem at first glance to be merely a medley gleaned from the more famous ballet, it should not be forgotten that Prokofiev published the set independently and that it was first performed the year before the finished ballet, perhaps by way of an advertisement for the more challenging (financially, at least) work to follow. Also included here is Prokofiev’s Toccata, written in 1912 while he was at the St Petersburg Conservatoire. The work was possibly conceived as a movement of the Second Piano Sonata, but Prokofiev evidently decided the work was worthy of publication in its own right.

This recital includes the world premiere recordings of Chailly’s Due istantanee and Variazioni nel sogno. Roberto Giordano is a regular guest of some of the most important stages and festivals in the world. He has performed chamber music with many eminent musicians and regularly accompanies the bass-baritone Josè van Dam.

Sviatoslav Richter gives idiomatic studio performances of Mussorgsky and Prokofiev. The first piano concerto features the Prague Symphony Orchestra conducted by Karel Ancerl.

70 minutes + at super budget price.

‘This is a real knock-out of a performance.’ Gramophone of Mussorgsky

‘Richter, it need hardly be said, plays all this music gloriously well.’ Gramophone of Prokofiev Sonata

An overwhelming performance of Mussorgsky's masterpiece, Pictures at an Exhibition by Russian virtuoso Vladimir Ovchinnikov.

Ovchinnikov made an impressive career after winning the 1987 Leeds piano competition. He recorded extensively for EMI, notably definitive performances of Liszt's Transcendental Studies and the Rachmaninov Etudes-tableaux. This Mussorgsky was recorded for Collins Classics, in the great acoustics of the Henry Wood Hall, London. As a substantial filler a scintillating performance of Shostakovich's first Piano Concerto, with the Philharmonia conducted by Maxim Shostakovich, the composer's son. Trumpeter is the fabulous John Wallace.

Recording: October 1990, Abbey Road Studios (Shostakovich), Henry Wood Hall (Mussorgsky), London, UK

Producer: John West (Shostakovich), James Mallinson (Mussorgsky)

Engineer: Simon Rhodes (Shostakovich), John Timperley (Mussorgsky)

The Japanese pianist Rieko Yoshizumi began piano lessons when she was only four. Her musical skills are wide-ranging; as well as gaining a degree in piano performance, she studied vocal accompaniment and harpsichord and in her spare time played in a rock band. On this CD she performs Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, as well as Image and L’Isle Joyeuse by Debussy.

Leif Ove Andsnes embarks on a major project which marks a new departure for the internationally acclaimed pianist. Together with South African-born visual artist Robin Rhode he has created a special programme entitled Pictures Reframed which centres around Mussorgsky's epic piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition combining music, film and still imagery.

"There are pieces of music where you feel everything's there, everything is said" comments Andsnes. "Pictures at an Exhibition is the opposite, making it a perfect composition to experiment with as Mussorgsky's music is incredibly strong but also very open and experimental. The main thing isn't the notes themselves, but the composer's grand vision. For me therefore, the original version of the work remains almost as a sketch that is open for transformations and changes. You have this wild narrative of a person walking into an exhibition and he crashes into the first picture and is faced with various strong images and textures. Later in the cycle he becomes a part of the picture and it takes on so many aspects. Its psychologically challenging, I think."

Leif Ove Andsnes and Robin Rhode share a mutual fascination with Pictures at an Exhibition. Rhode had already been experimenting with images based on Mussorgsky's work and his 2008 digital animation "Promenade" has become the opening sequence for Pictures Reframed. With its characterful and constantly changing interplay between actor and drawing it fittingly sets the scene for the musical narrative to come. "I have always worked very closely with music" Rhode says "playing with the notion of rhythm and sound. This new project is not, therefore, so distant from my regular practice although classical music has such an intense history and that will be a difficult challenge."

Robin Rhode and Leif Ove Andsnes met for the first time in Munich in September 2007 and ideas for the programme have been evolving ever since, moving from piano to studio and back to piano. One of their early meetings took place in a derelict Berlin factory where Rhode started to draw on the bare wall - a backdrop that is often featured in his work, stemming from his introduction to art on the streets of Johannesburg. As Rhode embellished the imaginary instrument Andsnes stepped forward to perform on it, bringing another dimension to Rhode's playful and often illusionary work.

A special luxury collector's edition of Pictures Reframed, including both a DVD and CD packaged together in an exhibition 156 pages catalogue-style hardback book with a wide selection of images from the creation and final performance version of Pictures Reframed.

Leif Ove Andsnes embarks on a major project which marks a new departure for the internationally acclaimed pianist. Together with South African-born visual artist Robin Rhode he has created a special programme entitled Pictures Reframed which centres around Mussorgsky's epic piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition combining music, film and still imagery.

"There are pieces of music where you feel everything's there, everything is said" comments Andsnes. "Pictures at an Exhibition is the opposite, making it a perfect composition to experiment with as Mussorgsky's music is incredibly strong but also very open and experimental. The main thing isn't the notes themselves, but the composer's grand vision. For me therefore, the original version of the work remains almost as a sketch that is open for transformations and changes. You have this wild narrative of a person walking into an exhibition and he crashes into the first picture and is faced with various strong images and textures. Later in the cycle he becomes a part of the picture and it takes on so many aspects. Its psychologically challenging, I think."

Leif Ove Andsnes and Robin Rhode share a mutual fascination with Pictures at an Exhibition. Rhode had already been experimenting with images based on Mussorgsky's work and his 2008 digital animation "Promenade" has become the opening sequence for Pictures Reframed. With its characterful and constantly changing interplay between actor and drawing it fittingly sets the scene for the musical narrative to come. "I have always worked very closely with music" Rhode says "playing with the notion of rhythm and sound. This new project is not, therefore, so distant from my regular practice although classical music has such an intense history and that will be a difficult challenge."

Robin Rhode and Leif Ove Andsnes met for the first time in Munich in September 2007 and ideas for the programme have been evolving ever since, moving from piano to studio and back to piano. One of their early meetings took place in a derelict Berlin factory where Rhode started to draw on the bare wall - a backdrop that is often featured in his work, stemming from his introduction to art on the streets of Johannesburg. As Rhode embellished the imaginary instrument Andsnes stepped forward to perform on it, bringing another dimension to Rhode's playful and often illusionary work.