Mussorgsky - "Coronation scene", Golovanov!! 1947,The best!!

[Strefanasha]

I must admit i find the original mussorgsky rather boring. The Rimsky version is much more colourful, and of course the coronation scene is a favourite of mine.

i love the evocation of byzantine mystery, particulartly as I view the God of Hosts as Tsar and Autocrat of heaven

[Jsrysmoya56]

If Golovanov had recorded the original Mussorgsky version...

[Spiritakis]

I have listened to it. Golovanov is amazingly powerful and original, as always. But Pirogov is simply pathetic. After Boris Christoff - by far the finest Boris Godunov on record I've yet heard - the best I can say about Pirogov is that he sounds like a fairly talented student who, however, needs to work quite a lot on his voice and interpretation.

[deramr]

One remark, the Boris picture that appears at 4:40 is Mark Reizen, not Pirogov.

[fatas412]

They say if you play mozart to your child in the womb he becomes smarter, if you play Mussorgsky does he become a serial killer?

[P1B1U1H1]

@fatas412 What's wrong with Boris, morally speaking? He repents at the end and goes to heaven, unlike the rest of us sinners, almost all of whom will rot in Hell.

[fatas412]

@P1B1U1H1 I was going more based off the music alone, if you listen to Mozart's symphonies there very structured and bright (on the whole) if you listen to Mussorgsky his symphonies are dark, very dissonant at times

[P1B1U1H1]

@fatas412 Ah. The joke told me was that someone played Schoenberg to his baby every day for five years, and the kid grew up to become a serial killer.

[lehtorja]

@P1B1U1H1 I don't see the opera prtraying Boris as esceptionally bad - more lika as a controversial figure, as human beings are. His sin was that he supposedly had their heir to the throne killed to gain the throne for himself. That would probably count as a morally evil deed for most.

[P1B1U1H1]

@lehtorja Mussorgsky and everyone else knew he began the institution of serfdom.

[tzar2007]

this is the original version, before it was reworked by Rimsky-Korsakov.

[RADAMES1983]

@tzar2007

No, this is the Korsakov version.

The original you can fing in my visios with the Mariinsky thater, cunducted by Gergiev.

[sczhdtaivfe]

WHAT IN THE NAME OF GOD HAPPENS AT 7:56

[queldryk]

It may be an old recording but I love it! The bells sound like a genuine pre-revolutionary bell peel rather than a call to dinner on the SS Bremen

[PageLaboratoire]

Yes it's tru! This performance is awasome!!

[sczhdtaivfe]

this music is not of this world.

[keikobad]

Impressive, beautiful and charismatic voice. Not to the pitch mostly, and the tempo is fast albeit that Russians claim otherwise. Intresting recording just after Stalin had slaughtered 60 million Russians in the so called "great war", and around it. This is the Rimsky version btw.

[Tiagoerg]

Massive opera, first listener to it! Mussorgsky power is really impressive. Its such a pitty that this is a revised version. Shostakovich's one i guess, because i clearly hear glockenspiels in here, and such instrument is not scored on Rimsky-Korsavok's version. A really pitty indeed. Altought the orchestration is pure color, i would rather hear the original version.

[BorisGodunov]

Nope, it's the Rimsky version. You can tell by the extra bars added in, which Shostakovich did not do. My Rimsky score definitely has glockenspiels ("campanelli" in Italian).

[ohasm1]

@BorisGodunov The campanelli and the glockenspiel aren't quite the same. Usually the Italian term 'campanelli' is applied to the tubular bells. Glockenspiel usually refers to a flat, boxed keyboard of tuned metal strips (though it has been used as another name for carillion).

[BorisGodunov]

@ohasm1 I'm afraid you're mistaken, it is "Campanelle" that refers to the Tubular bells, while the diminutive "Campanelli" indeed refers to the glockenspiel.

[ohasm1]

@BorisGodunov Ah... but they're both diminutives! Maybe there are instances where the tubular bells have been called campanelle. Have only ever played from parts where they're called campanelli. Not that the word matters, it's a letter's difference. See 'harmonica' and 'armonica'

[BorisGodunov]

@ohasm1 You can look it up, but "campanelli" almost always refers to the glockenspiel. I've not seen any score that said otherwise, although I suppose there could be typographical errors that would label bells as such. There are similar names for other bell instruments (like "campanelle" for tubular bells), and yes, one letter does make a difference. At any rate, to the point of the original comment, the Rimsky version definitely has a glockenspiel, and this is certainly the Rimsky version.

[sbcpianist]

Excellent!

[2mardiv]

Beautiful! Beautiful! Thank you for posting what has to be one of the best, if not the best, interpretations of this superb opera.

[mrusernameone]

I cannot believe at how many people don't know what a joke is....Of course rap sucks.

[mrusernameone]

Eeehh...It ain't no 50 Cent!

[bbassillio]

i think that your (mrusernameone) price is even less than 50 cent.

advice: never say about anything you do not know.

[mrusernameone]

I'm bbassillio: I don't comprehend obvious jokes so I relentlessly insult others because I'm Ukranian filth.

[anizato]

mmm.... you are pretty ignorant... reserve your comments before classical music regarding other instances of music.

ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU COMPARE RAP... rap is like a degradation to music, it's despicable. the rythm itself is an insult. don't injure yourself further by mentioning HORRIBLE music before THE BEST there is, classical.

[AEFic]

@anizato Oh please, let us avoid asinine insults on other genres- it's all a matter of fucking taste. Who the hell cares if someone likes classical or rap- there's no such thing as good or bad music, just music you like or don't like.

[seancoxen]

Nikandr Khanaev is Shuisky.

[klodg]

Génial !

La version original me semble plus lente un peu..

[HoGraz]

I found this on an old record at an antique store in Cookeville, Tennessee.

[RADAMES1983]

Hehe! I have the fool opera with Golovanov on old Russian records as well. (Also have it on mp3, restored.

R your records are Russian?

[RADAMES1983]

@RADAMES1983

Yes.

Have the fool version in Russian records and the mp3 restored version.

[jedrek12345]

@RADAMES1983  haha "FOOL": version lol

[jcmud]

Great!!! The tempi a little fast I think.

[ottokees]

So amazing recording!!!...I posted a version today...cheers!!!!, ~Sergio.

[BdColonel]

It's the rimsky-Korsakov version. It's great though one thing annoys me... in the final part, where Boris dies, the part of his son is sung by a woman :-S Abaddo does the same in his recording, but i really just find that extremely irritating......

[BdColonel]

ok, karajan does that too, bleh.

[jkircher314]

It's called a trouser role and is a common operatic practice.

[BdColonel]

Yes, but i still don't find it natural.

Also , if you search for godunov and christoff you will find the death scene with boris christoff, where they use an actual kid, not a 30 year old woman in heavy make-up. And his voice seems perfectly fine to me. Just my opinion though, nothing more

[DemisLian]

Thanks for the information. I saw that video, but does that kid actually sing?

I have the same problem with the little shepherd boy in Tannhäuser Act 1, usually sung by some Dawn Upshaw or other light soprano. Only in the Solti studio recording he cast a young boy from the Wiener Sängerknaben and the result is excellent!

[BorisGodunov]

That's what both the Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov casting calls for. The original Mussorgsky version doesn't specify a boy soprano.

[BdColonel]

MUSSORGSKY: Boris Godunov (complete)

Alexander Pirogov (Boris); Bronislava Zlatogorova (Feodor); Elena Kruglikova (Xenia); Nikandr Khanayev (Prince Shuiski); Maxim Mikhailov (Pimen); Georgi Nelepp (Grigori); Maria Maksakova (Marina); V. Lubentsov (Varlaam); Ivan Kozlovsky (The Fool); Bolshoi Theater Chorus & Orchestra/Nicolai Golovanov, cond. (rec. 1949)

[DemisLian]

As you said exactly, friend Radames, the most realistic performance I' ve ever heard! And I thought that the Boris CD I own (Ghiaurov, Vishnevskaya/Karajan, 1970) was the best ever. This recording is the original or with the Poland Scene as well, revised by Rimsky- Korsakov? If yes, who sings Marina here?

Perfect videos, greetings from Greece!

[BdColonel]

Great music. Reminds me of Prokofiev's Ivan Grozny, but without the occasional cacophony

[PercyAGrainger]

There is a great deal of Golovanov availible on LP and CD, including all of the Liszt Tone Poems, Mozart's Requiem, Rachmaninoff Symphonies 2 & 3, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.6 and other PIT works, the Beethoven Symphony No 1, Rimsky's Scheherazade and several of his operas, the complete Scriabin Symphonies and many other works, all performed with the same power and energy as the Mussorgsky. All worth looking for and listening to in detail -Good hunting to you!

[RADAMES1983]

thank you for the comment! I've never heard that he recorded Mozart's Requiem! Where can I find it?!?!

I have the Mussirgsky's Pictures in the exhibition with him, it is adorable!

[ludwigvan17]

mussorgsky's music is unbelievable

so unique

[SDCmorg]

Wow! I must now hunt for recordings of Golovanov (if there's any!). Thanks for posting this!

[pastrychef1985]

As you promised, this is by far the greatest coronation scene! Good work! What is the overall phrasing like when Rangoni is harrassing Dmitri?