Pictures at an Exhibition. Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra & Valery Gergiev

EAN: 9789080441859

Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is core repertoire for symphony orchestras - thanks to Maurice Ravel, who made a brilliant orchestration of the original piano version. Ravel was a masterful painter with orchestral sounds. He exactly knew how to transform a work for the piano into an exceptionally refined symphonic composition. Ravel's magnificent display of colour can also be found in the works he wrote originally for orchestra, like La Valse. The unequalled refinement and subtle nuancing of Ravel's symphonic scores gives an orchestra the chance to display its virtuosity and beauty of sound, and for that reason they are great pieces to take on tour. In October 2002, for instance, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra performed these works during a concert tour of Greece, which was continued in the Netherlands with concerts in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and in the Rotterdam Concert Hall de Doelen. The last performance was recorded especially for this DVD with six cameras. Those who were present at all the concerts, could witness the extent to which the musicians must always be on the alert when Maestro Gergiev is conducting. Every performance was a new adventure: tempi and dynamics were never the same. The atmosphere of excitement during the cutting edge performance is splendidly captured on this DVD.