MODEST MUSSORGSKY (1839-1881): The Marriage (orch. Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov [1859-1935]), The Nursery (orch. Edison Denisov [1929-1996]).

Description: The Marriage, a radical experiment by Mussorgsky in setting a Gogol two-act comedy in continuous recitative - and did such a perfect job that the music cannot stand on its own away from the text - went unperformed until 1908 and was incompleted to begin with. Ippolitov-Ivanov was hired to complete the second act in 1931; this recording from 1983 lists him as the orchestrator but there is no second act and Opera Grove tells us that conductor Rozhdestvensky orchestrated the unorchestrated parts of this first act. Either way, this is the only available recording now of this work. Also the only available recording of Denisov's 1976 orchestration of the Nursery song-cycle in which he subtly uses Mahlerian-Debussian orchestral colors. No texts. Vladimir Khrulev (batione), Alexander Podbolotov (tenor), Vladimir Rybasenko (bass), Lyudmila Komakova (mezzo), Irina Muratova (soprano -  The Nursery), USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra (The Nursery); Gennadi Rozhdestvensky.