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Mussorgsky Pictures Revisited on CD

"Yet 'Pictures at an Exhibition' has caught the imagination of so many musicians, this recording is different though, this is a new take on music we think we know so well, and is now so aptly described as 'Mussorgsky Pictures Revisited'. Imagine that the gallery has shut for the night. The building is empty except for a pianist and a saxophone player. Anything might happen. Kristjan Randalu inhabits the persona of the gallery, and of the paintings themselves, while beckoning Dave Liebman, tempting him step by step. The lighting changes as they walk around, sometimes it's ghostly and candlelit, sometimes bright and confrontational. The canvases are prepared and they play. Liebman has come armed with his own brushes, ready to look at the paintings from new angles as Randalu tilts these well known melodies, sending the pictures spinning and creating a whole new choreography. (...) The music stops. Where have we been? What has changed? Could it be that Mussorgsky himself has walked with us? This composer, once famous among his friends for his wild and entertaining piano improvisations has recognised that his 'Pictures' has a new life?" Fiona Talkington