“This disc is like a casket filled with jewels”

The press about the latest Mariinsky label release.

Respected international music publications have heaped high praise on a disc of works by Musorgsky released on the Mariinsky label on 9 February this year and which marked the end of the composer’s anniversary, widely celebrated at the three Mariinsky venues in March 2014. The release includes Ravel’s orchestration of Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and the composer’s own original version of Night on Bald Mountain which maestro Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra particularly love and promote throughout the world. The disc also includes Musorgsky’s finest chamber-song cycle Songs and Dances of Death (orchestrated by Dmitry Shostakovich) interpreted by the outstanding Italian bass and long-standing Mariinsky Theatre collaborator Ferruccio Furlanetto, famed for his love of Musorgsky’s music.

Valery Gergiev has completely reinvented masterpieces of classical music and the result of that rethinking is phenomenal. Beyond any doubt this is one of the best releases to date on the Mariinsky label and one of Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra’s greatest accomplishments. The magnificent performance makes this recording a “listening-must”! (Herald Scotland) 

This disc is like a casket filled with jewels... Gergiev has done much to bring the real Musorgsky back to us, cleansing Night on Bald Mountain from everything that was added and letting the composer speak for himself. Those of us weaned on the full-fat versions of Night on Bald Mountain made by Rimsky-Korsakov and Stokowski can have trouble adapting to the ur-version, but Gergiev here gives a supercharged reading of the composer’s original 1867 creation; in the shrieking piccolos, hammering rhythms and the starkest of harmonies you can hear the genesis of (Stravinsky’s) The Rite of Spring. (Sinfini Music)

Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is one of Gergiev's finest works as a conductor. In fine form, the Mariinsky Orchestra gives the maestro the full opportunity to expose the timbre qualities of Ravel’s orchestration. And, finally, we have a recording of Night on Bald Mountain – the composer’s original version – which reveals to the audience a grandiose musical universe. (Pizzicato)

The wonderful quality of the recording allows us to hear every nuance of the orchestra’s work... But the dark shades of the timbre, which literally makes one’s blood freeze, comes from Ferruccio Furlanetto’s ideal performance of this famous Songs and Dances of Death cycle. It is an&bsp;interpretation that staggers with its magnificence. (MusicWeb International)

Ferruccio Furlanetto’s interpretation of Musorgsky’s song series is unforgettable. (BBC Radio 3 CD Review with Andrew McGregor)