01. - 04. The Pines of Rome [20'37]
05, - 08. The Fountains of Rome [15'52]
Classic Records HDAD 2015
Modest Mussorgsky
01. - 15. Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel) [32'25]
16. Night on Bald Mountain (orch. Rimsky-Korskov) [11'13]
Classic Records HDAD 2017
Recorded for Everest on 35mm Magnetic Film in 1959-1960; LPs issued in 1960; DVD/CDs issued in 2006.
(24bit/96KHz 2-channel FLAC digital download, cover and inlay scans, no booklets)
Recording venue: Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London
Recording engineer and Producer: Bert Whyte
As there has been much interest in Sir Malcolm's Everest recordings lately and these two seem to have disappeared from the blogosphere, I thought it worthwhile to post them again here on MIMIC.
Classic Records issued both of these two-disc sets in 2006. They contained one disc with a DVD-Audio side with 24bit/192kbps 2-track data and 24bit/96kbps 3-track data and the other side a DVD-Video with 24bit/96kbps data. The second disc was a conventional CD. These rips (not mine, many thanks to the original uploader) are from the DVD-Video. The recordings on both discs have also appeared on many different LP and CD issues, most notably in Omega's Vanguard Classics series and more generously coupled - the former with Eugene Goossens'Feste Romane and the latter in a 2-CD set with the Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev Symphonies No.5.
Whilst the performances on these recordings are not quite at the same level as Sargent's Everest Prokofiev and Shostakovich, some have found them a bit stiff and slow, I don't agree and enjoy them very much. I particularly like the Pines of Rome with its very vocal nightingale in The Pines of the Janiculum. Curiously, this Classic Records issue has The Pines placed before The Fountains, unlike most re-issues and contrary to the disc cover. The Mussorgsky is in the usual arrangements by Ravel (also curiously titled Pictures of an Exhibition on the inlay card; rather than the more correct from or the usual at) and Rimsky-Korsakov, although the latter is not indicated at all on the inlay card.
As usual with Sir Malcolm and engineer Bert Whyte, all the detail in the orchestration is brought vividly to life.
Footnote: Anybody interested in the convoluted history of Everest recordings' re-release may find this Discophage page informative: www.discophage.com/discographies/everest-records-cd-discography/.