Track Listing

1. Night On Bald Mountain
2. Pictures At An Exhibition

Product Details

• Released on: 2000-12-19
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Dimensions: .22 pounds
• Running time: 41 minutes

Amazon.com essential recording
This was one of the recordings that put Telarc on the musical map, and first revealed the potential of digital recording technology to millions of music lovers and stereo buffs. It's still one of the very finest recordings of "Pictures" around, both as sound and performance. Lorin Maazel maintained the high standards of execution that George Szell inculcated during his quarter century in Cleveland, and for sheer hair-trigger precision, the playing is simply unbeatable. In addition, Telarc captured the performance in what was then and remains demonstration-quality sound, with the famous bass drum thwacks putting a practically subsonic foundation on the whole enterprise. Still a classic. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews

What else is there to say?
What is that saying? Oh, yeah: "Everything that can be said has been said. It just hasn't been said by everyone yet."

This was the first CD I bought. In fact, I bought it a couple of years before I was finally able to buy my first CD player (they were really expensive).

I was a stereo salesman in those bygone days. I've always felt I owed Maazel, Telarc, the Cleveland Orchestra, et al, a commission for all the money I made simply playing this recording for my custoemrs and shutting up.

And now more than a quarter century has gone by. I no longer sell stereo equipment (thank God), CD players cost about the same as a two Big Macs, the world has fallen apart and been patched back together so many times I've lost count, and this is still the best damned reason for digital stereo I've ever heard.

If you don't own it you should. If you do own it you already know why.

Definitive
Lorin Maazel's discography is quite varied. Most of his early recordings are famous (like this one) and are considered classics. However, as he aged, critics began to feel his perchance for technicality began to take precedence over emotion. This CD was one of the conductor's first recordings, and it is still considered today THE definitive Pictures at an Exhibition. The sound is crystal clear in this digital masterpiece. The orchestral playing is top-notch and cannot be matched. The sound is transparent revealing Ravel's beautiful orchestration. This truly is one of those CDs that everyone should own, no matter what. Although the other reviews have summed up most of my feelings on this CD, I cannot stress how wonderful this CD is. A MUST!

An aural spectacle, musical storytelling at its best!
Having at least four versions of Mussorgsky's famous tone-poem (including the original piano version from which Ravel based his magnificent orchestration), I still maintain Lorin Maazel and the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra's version as my hands-down favorite. This rendition, with the CSO's astute pacing, brings to mind the masterful storytelling abilities of today's best cinema scores-an attribute highly appropriate for a work of this sort.
I will agree with the Penguin Guide's assessment that this is "not one of the more subtle readings" of this work. Maazel takes advantage of the full force of the CSO with agile strings, confident, energetic winds, and deep, thundering percussions. And with Telarc's crystal-clear accuracy, you will find little in want here. Except perhaps the often-stated lack of chapter sectioning-a nice to have, though not critical, feature.