Pianophilia

isokani wrote:Thanks for your "thumbs up" re. Pavel Lamm. By the way, a friend of mine made a jazz record called "An Exhibitionist at the Pictures" ...

It is a definite fact that the Soviet ”Urtext" edition was never available outside the USSR. Amazing that the old Peters edition edited by Walter Niemann (containing the Rimsky version!) is still in print!!

Now I am curious to check whether Moiseiwitsch did use the Urtext in his 1945 recording...

Re: Pictures No. 8:

https://www.baerenreiter.com/im-fokus/w ... sstellung/

Pictures manuscript:

(nms)

alfor wrote: M. was a heavy drunkard. Imho the following was his first (slightly unsuccessful) attempt to jot down the first bars:

Mussorgsky_Urtext.pdf

Immodest Mussorgsky. Thanks for the joke Alfor.

Alas, Alfred, your urtext edition is too big for my small hands!

alfor wrote:Pictures manuscript:

(nms)

Mussorgsky Pictures Manuscript.pdf

This is really excellent! Many thanks indeed. I can now solve (maybe) all textual issues myself.
Again, much appreciated!

phikfy wrote:

alfor wrote: M. was a heavy drunkard. Imho the following was his first (slightly unsuccessful) attempt to jot down the first bars:

Mussorgsky_Urtext.pdf

Immodest Mussorgsky. Thanks for the joke Alfor.

I would just like to correct the impression everyone has of Mussorgsky as the world champion drunkard, he was that for sure but when he was composing he remained stone cold sober throughout the time he was busy composing. Pictures was written down in two weeks I believe and in that time he never had one drink. You only have to examine the manuscript and see how neat it is that it does beg the question if you look at a Beethoven manuscript which of the two was the drunkard. Incidentally for those whose financial means are small the Konemann edition of Mussorgsky's piano works is also based on the manuscript and presumably the Russian Lamm edition, as for all the editions based on Rimsky's well-intentioned improvements then I suggest the bottom of the bird cage or for making paper aeroplanes.
regards and success to isokani
Brian

Aleksandr Ivanovich Rubets’. Born 1838, Chuhuiv: died 1913, Starodub. Ukrainian choral conductor, teacher and musicologist. Originally studied in Kharkiv, later graduated from the St Petersburg Conservatoire in 1886 after studies with Zaremba. He later taught music theory and choral sings at the conservatoire. A noted collector of Ukrainian folk music - he published a collection of Ukrainian national folk-songs in 1870, and a collection of Ukrainian dances in 1872. He was also author of books on music theory and choral singing. He was recognised as such an expert on Ukrainian music that Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov referred to him when composing their respective operas, Mazeppa and May Night. In the mid-1890’s Rubets' lost his sight, and finally settled at the family estate at Starodub in the Chernigiv province, where he continued to run his own music and arts school until his death.

Had to do all of this scan in greyscale as original copy was so poor.

Malcolm

News from the „fabbrica diteggiatura“:

S. O. S. RACHMANINOFF
Piano Concerto No. 2 op. 18
alfor fingered