John Smyth reported:

>One of the many striking moments was how splashy Ravel's writing for
>bells, gong and cymbals sounds in the last quiet run before the final
>statement of the Great Gate theme

My first version of Pictures was conducted by Antal Dorati on a 10" LP,
an admission that confirms my pre-Cambrian origins.  Dorati left a short
gap between the end of the "last quiet run" and the statement of the
Gate theme.  In some other versions I've heard, the Gate theme follows
immediately thus, to my mind, robbing it of some of its impact.  I wonder
if this gap is in the score and, incidentally, whether Mussorgsky or
Ravel would have so indicated or even whether it's reasonable for Ravel
to do so if it's not what Mussorgsky indicated.  I haven't heard that
many versions of the piano original, so I don't know what the practice
is there.

A few years back, someone supplied a link to a site with some of the
Hartmann pictures and the Gate was nothing like I'd imagined.  If it's
still there, it's probably down the road from where this Naxos version
was recorded.  Any listers been to Kiev lately?

Richard Pennycuick