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Mussorgsky-Stokowski: Transcriptions. Pictures at an Exhibition; Boris Godunov; Night on Bare Mountain.(Sound recording review)
Mussorgsky-Stokowski: Transcriptions. Pictures at an Exhibition; Boris Godunov; Night on Bare Mountain. Jose Serebrier, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Naxos 8.557645.
As we know, Leopold Stokowski was not only a popular conductor, he also a tireless transcriber of some two hundred works for orchestra. Most of these transcriptions were of piano and organ pieces, like the conductor's celebrated revision of Bach's Toccata and Fugue or Rachmaninov's Prelude in C-sharp minor. In any case, neither of those works is on this disc. Instead, we have as the centerpieces of album Mussorgsky's Night on Bare Mountain and Pictures at an Exhibition.
I have personally never cared overmuch for Stokowski's orchestral transcriptions. I have usually found them softer and more romanticized than the originals; and this certainly applies to Bare Mountain and Pictures, where I have always thought Rimsky-Korsakov's and Ravel's orchestrations more pointed and more faithful to the composer's intent. Combine Stokowski's soft arrangements with conductor Serebrier's soft readings and Naxos's soft sound, and the results do not exactly sparkle.
Take Pictures at an Exhibition, for example. In Serebrier's hands, it seems only to limp along, ...
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