Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition; Night on the Bare Mountain

Advantages: A great recording of popular and familiar works with excellent sound and performance values
Disadvantages: Absolutely none whatsoever

...Romanticism and forging a daringly original style, very raw and often dissonant. Also his vocal and operatic works employ a radical declamatory style based on everyday speech patterns. Mussorgsky was never a truly prolific composer. He wrote three song cycles, a set of musical pictures for piano called Pictures at an Exhibition, two operas, Boris Godunov and the unfinished Khovanshchina, the incomplete play Sorochintsy Fair and the orchestral fantasia St.John's Night on the Bare Mountain for the play The Witch. In 1867 he left the civil service, meaning to earn a living as teacher and accompanist, but took a position in the government's Forestry Department the following year due to financial difficulties. His continuing lapses into alcoholism, drawn from his mixing with wild intellectuals, finally caused his health to deteriorate and forced him... Read review

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Advantages: Contrasting programme music unified by a recurring theme
Disadvantages: None

...Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, born in 1839, was one of a group of Russian composers known as The Five, who were dedicated to producing a distinctive Russian style of music. Among Mussorgsky?s closest friends was the archietect and painter, Victor Hartmann. Hartmann died suddenly at the age of only 39. Mussorgsky was devasted by the news of his death. The following year of 1874, he attended an exhibition of his friend?s work. Walking around the exhibition, stopping and gazing at each of the pictures was to inspire Mussorgsky to compose an evocative and masterful tribute to his friend and his aristry. Mussorgsky composed Pictures at Exhibtition as a cycle of Piano pieces illustrating ten of Hartmann?s pictures linked by a recurring theme to show the viewer moving from one painting to another. It was later arranged... Read review

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Advantages: everything
Disadvantages: nothing

...Railway tour which takes you around the old train tracks within the park, also giving you some insightful historical background about the area. You can also opt to watch a documentary in one of the visitor centres, which gives you a detailed background of the park, which the first settlers were on the grounds and how the parks transformed within the last 250 years. If you do some research before you go its worthwhile booking a tour with Blue Mountains Tourism, which again offers a wide variety of packages for things to see and do within the park. They also offer some great accommodation if you choose to stay the night in the park. The website listed below gives you some great info on where you can find a place to stay, thus making you journey more pleasant and memorable. Great Blue Mountains Drive is a self service driving opportunity which... Read review

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