佳佳唱片

燦爛的俄羅斯管絃樂(展覽會之畫 / 荒山之夜 / 東方幻想曲《伊斯拉美》/ 韃靼人舞曲舞曲)
水藍 指揮
新加坡交響樂團

Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Lan Shui
Singapore Symphony Chorus & Youth Choir (in PolovtsianDances)

This disc of orchestral showpieces features four of the five members of the Mighty Handful, a group of Russian composers who, during the second half of the 19th century, collaborated to create a distinct national style. The recorded works illustrate different aspects of their endeavours –both in terms of the musical means they employ and their subject matter. Orientalism is one of the typical features of the music of the group, as witness Balakirev's Islamey–employing material from the Caucasus Mountains –and Borodin's Polovtsian Dances, describing the revels of a nomadic eastern tribe during a 12th-century raid into the Russian lands.
The most individual of the group was Modest Mussorgsky, with a musical language both powerful and startlingly vivid in imagination. His celebrated Pictures from an Exhibitionwas composed in 1874 as a tribute to a recently deceased artist friend, and takes in such specifically Russian elements as the fairy-tale witch Baba Yagaand the Great Gate of Kiev. Originally written for the piano it is here performed in the 1922 orchestration by Maurice Ravel. Also by Mussorgsky, the opening Night on the Bare Mountain paints a witch's Sabbath in bold brushstrokes, and was re-orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakovafter the composer's death. It is his version, with more sumptuous orchestral textures and a tighter formal plan that is heard here, performed by the Singapore Symphony Orchestraand Lan Shui.

Modest Mussorgsky (1839—81)
1 ) Night on the Bare Mountain 12'06
completed and orchestrated by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
2—16 ) Pictures from an Exhibition 33'43
orchestrated by Maurice Ravel
Mily Balakirev (1837—1910)
17 ) Islamey 8'31
orchestrated by Sergei Lyapunov
Alexander Borodin (1833—87)
18—25 ) Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor 11'54
orchestrated by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Anatoly Liadov
TT: 67'38