Oct 18, 2026 · 1 hr 14 min · 9 segments
The Soviet pianist Sviatoslav Richter, as I hope this and the following episode will illustrate, is one of the greatest musicians of the recording era… unsurpassed technical expertise matched with a…
The Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky's 1874 work Pictures at an Exhibition, a series of short works each describing a painting, sketch or watercolour by Mussorgsky's friend Viktor Hartmann, who had died the previous year, is today best known as an incredible orchestral showcase.
It was Maurice Ravel's orchestration 49 years later that gained the work its ongoing fame.
But in 1958, a recording of the piano version, performed live by a Russian pianist that some people in the West had heard of, but very few had heard a performance by, made its way out from behind the Iron Curtain.
Here are the two thrilling sections that conclude Mussorgsky's pictures at an exhibition, The Hut of Baba Yaga and The Great Gate of Kiev.
This is about eight minutes of music, and despite the rather poor recording quality, I hope you can hear the explosive brilliance of Richter's playing.
That was Sviatoslav Richter live in Sofia in Bulgaria in 1958, performing the two sections that conclude Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, The Hut of Baba Yaga and The Great Gate of Kiev.
The Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky's 1874 work Pictures at an Exhibition, a series of short works each describing a painting, sketch or watercolour by Mussorgsky's friend Viktor Hartmann, who had died the previous year, is today best known as an incredible orchestral showcase.
It was Maurice Ravel's orchestration 49 years later that gained the work its ongoing fame.
But in 1958, a recording of the piano version, performed live by a Russian pianist that some people in the West had heard of, but very few had heard a performance by, made its way out from behind the Iron Curtain.
Here are the two thrilling sections that conclude Mussorgsky's pictures at an exhibition, The Hut of Baba Yaga and The Great Gate of Kiev.
This is about eight minutes of music, and despite the rather poor recording quality, I hope you can hear the explosive brilliance of Richter's playing.
That was Sviatoslav Richter live in Sofia in Bulgaria in 1958, performing the two sections that conclude Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, The Hut of Baba Yaga and The Great Gate of Kiev.
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