Boris Godunov confusion

I am confused about the various versions of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov. Can someone enlighten me about what the difference is between Mussorgsky's own versions plus the reorchestrations and which ones are best (and the best recording if you have an opinion on that)?

Thanks.

I am confused about the various versions of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov. Can someone enlighten me about what the difference is between Mussorgsky's own versions plus the reorchestrations and which ones are best (and the best recording if you have an opinion on that)?

Thanks.

There are three that I know of. The original orchestration which there aren't many recordings of because no one started using it until relatively recently. There's the Rimsky-Korsakov orchestration which is supposed to be much more refined than the original and is probably the most common version. And there's the Shostakovich orchestration which I know almost nothing about.

That's probably not all that helpful but it might be a start for ya.

Basically, R-K and a number of other "better" orchestrators decided to clean up some of Mussorgsky's "mistakes."

What a good friend.

Mussorgsky is known for his ideas, not really for his works themselves. He also notoriously re-edited his own works, in part because he was not a technical composer.

R-K also re-ordered some of the scenes to "improve" the dramatic flow of the story.

Some of the musical changes, for example: (and I much prefer the orcehstration and effect of the R-K version for this particular bit) the original Coronation scene is considerably shorter and (in my opinion) not quite as dramatic as the Rimsky version. Rimsky lengthened some of the choral sections, and tightened the harmony, also bringing out some of the wonderful dissonances that Musorgski had composed. (the coronation scene is surprisingly "modern", with these wonderful quazi-clusters in the orchestra).

I had the great pleasure of singing in the chorus for a concert production of this opera a number of years ago.

I understand that there are two versions by Mussorgsky that are so different they are pretty much different operas. For example, Mussorgsky v2 has a love interest for Boris and some duets whereas the original is all male. I am curious about this because San Francisco opera just played the original first version of Boris and I was thinking of buying the CD of the opera, but quickly got overwhelmed by the various versions and at the steep price, you better know what you are purchasing. Plus I love what Shostakovich did to Khovanshchina (darker, more intense moments) but it seems impossible to find Shosti's version of Boris.