Peng Peng, Leonard Slatkin - Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition / Liszt: Piano Concerto no. 1 (2008) CD-Rip

This curious hodgepodge of a disc begins with the Liszt First piano concerto in a straightforward, exciting performance by young Chinese pianist Peng Peng (no, I won’t go there). Aside from a bit of banging at the opening, as much Liszt’s doing as Peng’s, he brings plenty of sizzle to the scherzo section and real freshness to the concluding march. It’s certainly enjoyable in its own right, though what it’s doing on the disc is anyone’s guess.

Leonard Slatkin has made a reputation for himself for assembling performances of Pictures at an Exhibition by various arrangers aside from Ravel. His earlier version focused on some of the French composer’s contemporaries, whereas this one looks largely at later (mostly unknown) efforts while still including a touch of Ravel (Con mortuis), Henry Wood (Two Polish Jews), Stokowski (Baba Yaga), and the somewhat well-known Sergey Gorchakov (Gnomus).

The problem all of the later arrangers face is that Ravel’s orchestration is so good, his instrumental choices so inevitable, that some of them seem stuck doing something different so as not to sound imitative, and so have to settle for being less good. This is particularly true of D. Wilson Ochon’s uninspired opening Promenade (must we have a glockenspiel?) and Geert Van Keulen’s Tuileries. On the other hand, Emile Naoumoff’s Old Castle, with its added piano decorations, is interesting, and Douglas Gamely pulls out all the stops (including organ and male chorus) in the Great Gate of Kiev, even if he inevitably sounds just like Ravel at the end. Two further notable contributions are Lucien Cailliet’s Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks and Vladimir Ashkenazy’s Bydlo (the best number in his version of the complete suite).

Through it all the Nashville Symphony plays very well, and is very well recorded, particularly for a one-off live performance. The program even has an encore, Rob Mathes’ weird arrangement of The Star-Spangled Banner, yet another of those ghastly 9/11 tributes that today’s classical composers can’t stop churning out in a pathetic effort to do something “relevant”. I detest this stuff–but never mind. Forget the couplings. Pictures is great fun, and for that reason you should seriously consider giving this a listen.