Piano Forum

what struck me immediately about this piece when i heard barry douglas perform it in 1986 or thereabouts - was the orchestration that he brought out from it on the piano.  i'd never heard a pianistically 'orchestrated piece.'  there are so many different tempos, dynamics, chord structures, harmonies - that it is one of the greatest 'experimental' pieces out there to see what you can get from your piano.  i think leopold stokowski's original conducting of this piece is the best and barry douglas puts it into perspective on the piano.  i now prefer the piano version - whereas, before - i liked the orchestral much better (ravel's).  now, rimsky-korsakov was no slouch when it came to orchestrating - but if my memory serves me right - stokowski conducted ravel's version. 

in any case - what i see in this piece is a 'massive stone.' if you can pick it up and carry it a ways - you're probably a half-way decent pianist.  if you can pick it up adn carry it to the end - you're a mighty weight lifter. 

something else that appeals to me is that in russia they have these incredible russian-orthodox choirs - with basso profundos.  so the bass is always such a thing i can hear.  you can literally hear the humming of the bass line in some parts as the basses are singing something similar to the volga boat song.  if you ever get a chance to hear the voice of ivan rebrov - you'll never forget it.  there is something innate in the russian character that just has music dripping from all sides.  like a glass of wine filled too full.  you can't help but go away from it - feeling a bit tipsy.  something else i want to say - is that russians seem to have an innate sense of PITCH (especially int eh BASS) and you can hear something other than a buzz or nonsense sounds.  you can hear from the low to the high ranges - and, for me - the thrill is in the pitches of the piano as much as the piece itself.  maybe it's that they understand resonance better?  church bells or something?

ps i also like to hear nationalistic music that contains folk elements of the country it represents.  i love to hear grieg because he expresses that norwegian element so well.  i think mussorgsky does the same for the russian landscape.  you can almost see russia in his music.