Any listener with the simple desire to hear a recording of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov is inevitably confronted with a maze of musicological dilemmas that can be baffling to navigate. The composer himself created two versions that vary widely in both tone and musical and dramatic content. Rimsky-Korsakov undertook a complete re-orchestration of Mussorgsky's second version, freely altering both harmonic and melodic elements that were not to his liking, making cuts and additions to the score and reversing the order of the two ...
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Any listener with the simple desire to hear a recording of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov is inevitably confronted with a maze of musicological dilemmas that can be baffling to navigate. The composer himself created two versions that vary widely in both tone and musical and dramatic content. Rimsky-Korsakov undertook a complete re-orchestration of Mussorgsky's second version, freely altering both harmonic and melodic elements that were not to his liking, making cuts and additions to the score and reversing the order of the two final scenes. His version was long considered the standard performing edition, but Shostakovich's orchestration gained some currency, particularly in Soviet theaters. There is considerable debate over the quality of the various versions that will never be resolved, but which must be acknowledged. Mussorgsky's original version offers a very different musical and dramatic experience from Rimsky-Korsakov's, and the listener who falls under Boris' spell will want to get to know...
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