Borodin Symphony No. 2 and Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition


Borodin Symphony No. 2 and Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition are the main pieces at the 2007 New Year's Eve gala concert by the Berliner Philharmoniker directed by Simon Rattle. Concert also has:

  1. Borodin Prince Igor: Polovtsian Dances
  2. Mussorgsky Introduction to  Khovanshchina.
  3. Shostakovich Dance from The Golden Age

Lighting by Björn Breitsprecher; TV director was Elisabeth Malzer. Released  2010, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: C+

Here's a sure-to-please New Year's Eve collection of Russian musical Farbegé eggs. You can show this with confidence to your friends, neighbors, and family members who hate Mahler, Wagner, and Handel. Music is fine artistically and technically.

But garrish and artifact-plagued video drags what could have been an "A"  to "C+." In 2007, producers were still learning how to use the new high-definition gear. Odd-colored lighting was used to perk up the gala atmosphere, and bright spotlights were used on performers. This is the only fine-arts HDVD we have seen where the viewer gets "blinded" in many shots by reflections off instruments. Other shots have performers in shadows with marked grain and loss of resolution.

As you can see from the YouTube clip below, this recording also has a serious case of DVDitis. So giving this a C+ is generous.