Pictures at an Exhibition

[JohnMichael]

I enjoyed your post. I also enjoyed the ELP recording. One day while walking through Peaches Record store I saw a record called Pictures at an Exhibition in the classical section. I bought and began my love of classical music.

Hearing it performed in a good hall would be incredible. Have a great time and let us know how it was. Are they going to use the Ravel orchestration?

Mussorgsky wrote the piano transcription and never orchestrated it as I am sure you know. One of my favorite recordings is Evgeny Kissin playing "Pictures" solo on the piano. I bought it planning to be disappointed but have really enjoyed it. The tone colors
have held up very nicely.

[MasterCylinder]

And remember...air drumming is frowned upon at a symphony performance.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for the tip......I'll not embarrass myself.





Are they going to use the Ravel orchestration?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oui.

[MasterCylinder]

Pictures at an Exhibition


Modest Mussorgsky
b. Karevo, Russia / March 21, 1839; d. St. Petersburg, Russia / March 28, 1881
Orchestrated by Maurice Ravel

Mussorgsky met Victor Hartmann, a brilliant young artist and architect, in 1862. They quickly became close friends, drawn together by the free wheeling creative spirit they shared, and by their common faith in the value of folk art. The 39-year-old Hartmann’s death from a heart attack in 1873 plunged Mussorgsky into a deep depression.

The following year, a memorial exhibition was held in St. Petersburg, displaying over 400 of Hartmann’s paintings, costumes, architectural designs and sketches for ornamental household objects. Mussorgsky’s visit to that display, combined with his desire to compose a piece in his friend’s memory, led to the creation of the piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition.

Although it is without doubt his finest piano work, its colorful nature cries out for the rich palette of instrumental effects which only an orchestra can provide. The most popular setting is the one devised by Maurice Ravel, on commission from Russian conductor Serge Koussevitzky. The first performance took place at the Paris Opera, under Koussevitzky’s direction, on October 19, 1922.

The suite opens with a majestic theme called Promenade, depicting visitors strolling between displays. It recurs, in different scoring, at several early points in the music. The first picture, The Gnome, describes in vivid fashion a grotesque nutcracker which Hartmann designed as a children’s Christmas present. Hartmann’s watercolor painting The Old Castle portrays a troubadour serenading his loved one by moonlight; the melancholy tone implies that his attempts at wooing prove unsuccessful. Ravel gives the main theme, most effectively, to the doleful voice of the alto saxophone.

Tuileries is a miniature scherzo, depicting children and their nurses strolling gracefully through a Parisian garden. The sombre voice of the solo tuba takes centre stage in Bydlo, which follows the lumbering approach and retreat of a Polish oxcart with large, heavy wheels. This is followed by another light scherzo, The Ballet of the Chicks in Their Shells. Mussorgsky’s inspiration was Hartmann’s costume sketch for a ballet, Trilby, in which dancers were dressed in large eggshells topped by the heads of canaries.

Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle describes two Polish Jews whom Hartmann had sketched in pencil while visiting that country. The first fellow is rich and pompous (low strings), the second poor and excitable (muted trumpet). After a bustling portrait of the marketplace in the French city of Limoges (complete with a raucous dispute between rival female vegetable vendors), the scene switches abruptly to Catacombs (A Roman Sepulchre), a stark, menacing portrait of an ancient underground tomb. In the second half of this section, With the Dead in a Dead Language, the music drops to a ghostly whisper for an eerie vision of skulls glowing in the dark.

Next comes a dynamic, phantasmagoric picture of Baba Yaga, the evil witch of Russian folklore, who flies about in a magic hut built on chicken’s legs. Hartmann used this image as the design for an elaborate clock. The suite concludes with a stirring evocation of Hartmann’s plan for an immense stone gate, in the massive old Russian style with a crown in the shape of a Slavonic helmet. It was intended for the Ukrainian city of Kiev but was never built. By way of compensation, Mussorgsky and Ravel together constructed upon its spirit a grander work than any tradesmen could ever hope to build. For sheer orchestral spectacle, The Great Gate at Kiev has few rivals.

[bobsticks]

Mussorgsky wrote the piano transcription and never orchestrated it as I am sure you know. One of my favorite recordings is Evgeny Kissin playing "Pictures" solo on the piano. I bought it planning to be disappointed but have really enjoyed it. The tone colors
have held up very nicely.

http://www.allmusic.com/album/mousso...d-sacd-w131217

[Jack in Wilmington]

One of the first pieces I bought when I got into classical music. I remember a few of my favorites from music appreciation class in 10th grade. I liked the CD, but when I got the vinyl. Well you know...........

[dean_martin]

Mussorgsky wrote the piano transcription and never orchestrated it as I am sure you know. One of my favorite recordings is Evgeny Kissin playing "Pictures" solo on the piano. I bought it planning to be disappointed but have really enjoyed it. The tone colors
have held up very nicely.

That's interesting, JM. I received both the Kissin and the Fritz Reiner for Christmas one year. At the time, I was more interested in the orchestral so the Kissin has been waiting patiently. I need to give it a chance.