Boris Godounov (1869 & 1872 Versions)

Worth every penny! Gergiev's Boris is marvelous; full of the rich emotion that makes the story so powerful. I feel that Mussorgsky's original version is more powerful and that Rimsky's orchestration takes away from the real effect of the work. No doubt why this is considered the greatest Russian opera. If you don't know it, you should enrich yourself by listening to this opera, whoever is doing it!

This is Penguin and Gramophone's choice for Boris Godunov, and even without the 2 free extra disks with the early version one would have to agree with them.

The exemplary booklet includes Cyrillic texts, with English, German, and French translations in parallel. Ura! All credit to Philips.