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Comparing the arrangements of Pictures at an Exhibition by Ravel and Stokowski is a fascinating exercise. They both seem so characteristic of the two arrangers. Both are masters of the orchestra. Both remain true to the essentially Russian spirit of Mussorgsky – perhaps even more so in the case of Stokowski. Which perhaps explains why he developed the bizarre suspicion that the two ‘French’ pieces in the Suite – Tuileries and the Limoges Marketplace – were by Rimsky Korsakov and therefore left them out altogether. Maybe it was because Ravel had, naturally, succeeded in making them sound so French in his earlier version. For the rest, Stokowski is more than up for the grotesqueries of the Gnome, the deep Russian darkness of the catacombs, the wildness of Baba Yaga and the splendours of the Great Gate. 
As for the performance, Serebrier was the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, having been Stokowsky’s assistant for some years, and he elicits truly Stokowskian sounds from the Bournemouth Symphony whose strings almost (but not quite) approach the velvety richness of the Master’s Philadelphians.

The rest of their programme is equally rich fare. The orchestration of Night on the Bare Mountain, made famous in Disney’s Fantasia, seems to me far superior to Rimsky Korsakov’s and even to Mussorgksy’s own. Serebrier rightly brings out the OTT string glissandi and biting brass. The Symphonic Synthesis of Boris is a cousin to the similar syntheses Stokowski made from Tristan and Parsifal and, like them, provides a rewarding distillation of the opera’s music in purely orchestral garb. Here, Stoky seems to stay closer to Mussorgsky’s original sound than Rimsky or Shostakovich. The disc ends with a trio of Beechamesque lollipops, all predictably gorgeous, especially Stokowski’s own Traditional Slavic Christmas Music where his youthful experience as an organist seems to come through in the tiered orchestration.