Mussorgsky is the most arranged composer, at least the most arranged as if there were something wrong with his works in the first place. 

Tchaikovsky wrote of poor Modest to his patroness: Mussorgsky you very rightly call a hopeless case. In talent he is perhaps superior to all the [other members of The Five], but his nature is narrow-minded, devoid of any urge towards self-perfection, blindly believing in the ridiculous theories of his circle and in his own genius. In addition, he has a certain base side to his nature which likes coarseness, uncouthness, roughness. He flaunts his illiteracy, takes pride in his ignorance, mucks along anyhow, blindly believing in the infallibility of his genius. Yet he has flashes of talent which are, moreover, not devoid of originality.

Woof! Tough crowd!

Yet of late it’s become fashionable again to perform his works as he wrote them.

But not today - at least not in this reissue of a 1970s era Musical Heritage recording which we’ve unearthed for the Halloween season (or for anyone interested in a wild, scenery chewing vaudeville version of Pictures at An Exhbition).

Calvin Hampton MIGHT be known to our members who spent a bit of time at MHS and in New York City, where Mr. Hampton would put on weekly concerts at midnight on Fridays, and he had works premiered by the New York Philharmonic. In the case of this recording, if you expect a recording of Bach’s works for organ, you can hear that these arrangements are influenced by Bach’s great Toccata in D, not as it appears on a great orchestral stage, but as it appears in Vincent Price movies! Calvin lets it fly - and this is fun, fun, fun and also spooky, just in time for Halloween!