Posted by Richard on August 21, 2002 at 22:55:48:
In Reply to: Re: Tuba Part for "Pictures" posted by Eric on August 21, 2002 at 22:06:57:
You should also check out Kurt Masur's recording with the London Philharmonic on Teldec of the orchestration by Sergei Gorschakov. This too is very Russian, and attempts to imagine how it might have sounded if Mussorgsky had orchestrated it himself. Ravel's orchestration is smooth and sophisticated, in the style of Rimsky-Korsakoff. Mussorgsky was the proverbial diamond in the rough, and not well schooled or skillfull at orchestration, which is why this and other works of his have been fair game by interventionists. Another version worth listening to is Vladimir Ashkenazy on London (Decca). The CD has him conducting his orchestration, AND him playing the piano original.
The Stokowski is fun, but whatever his source may have been, his orchestrations, like many of his interpretations, are extremely flambouyant, so keep those grains of salt handy.