TCHAIKOVSKY

Symphony No.2 ‘Little Russian’

MUSSORGSKY

A Night on the Bare Mountain (orig. version)
Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel)

Following the success of their first release on ONYX, the BSO and Karabits turn to the Ukraine for the second release in the orchestra’s partnership with ONYX. Tchaikovsky’s most overtly nationalistic symphony, his 2nd known as the ‘Little Russian’ uses folk songs from the Ukraine, and is the nearest the composer came to the musical and cultural ideals proposed by ‘The Mighty Handful’. This group of composers – Borodin, Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Cui and Mussorgsky rejected the Western influences on Russian culture, and looked to the music, folklore and history of Mother Russia for inspiration. Mussorgsky, probably the most naturally gifted of this group composed A Night on the Bare Mountain in 1867, and the original version heard here was not published until 1968. It is a striking work, quite shocking in it’s modernity, and a world away from Rimsky’s better known re-composition of the piece. The suite Pictures at an Exhibition was written for piano in 1874 and inspired by paintings by his friend Victor Harmann displays Mussorgsky’s great gift of graphic evocation. Ravel’s masterly orchestration was made in 1922.