Night on a Bare Mountain and Pictures at an Exhibition are firm favourites in the classical repertoire but, like many of Mussorgsky’s famous works, they are rarely performed as he wrote them. This programme, filmed on location in Russia, examines why his genius has been so obscured. It focuses on the detective work undertaken by the Singer Yevgeny Nesterenko, and the British conductor, David Lloyd-Jones, to uncover the details of the life and work of Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881).
Svetlanov conducts Prokofiev
Yevgeny Svetlanov conducts the State Symphony Orchestra of USSR in this remarkable all-Prokofiev programme, filmed at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt in 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed. They begin with the composer’s Symphony No. 1, “Classical”, in a performance that brings out all the pointed wit of Prokofiev’s brilliant pastiche of Viennese classicism. Violinist Vadim Repin then takes to the stage as soloist in the fiercely virtuosic Violin Concerto No.1, composed in the same year, 1917 – a year that, despite major political turbulence in Russia, saw Prokofiev produce several enduring masterpieces.