Pictures at an Exhibition (piano version) [with piano pieces by Prokofiev]

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MUSSORGSKY
Pictures at an Exhibition (piano version) [with piano pieces by Prokofiev]
Steven Osborne (piano)

[ Hyperion / CD ]

Release Date: Friday 1 February 2013

This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.

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.

GRAMOPHONE AWARD WINNER 2013: Instrumental

"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." The Times, 25th 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." The Guardian, 31st January 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." Sunday Times, 17th February 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." BBC Music Magazine, Disc of the Month 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."
(Editor's Choice Gramophone Magazine - March 2013)

Tracks:

Mussorgsky:
Pictures at an Exhibition (piano version)

Prokofiev:
Sarcasms (5), Op. 17
Visions fugitives, Op. 22