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Published: Thursday, 22 August 2024 at 07:47 AM


Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition exists in two forms: the composer’s original version, for solo piano, and Ravel’s later orchestration. Here, we’ll take a look at the genesis of the original piano piece – and some of its finest recordings.

What is Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition about?

Written in 1874, Pictures at an Exhibition is Mussorgsky’s only piano masterpiece: a tribute to his deceased friend, the artist and architect Viktor Hartmann. The suite of extraordinarily vivid miniature tone poems was composed after visiting a display of Hartmann’s work at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg – not long after the artist’s sudden death.

Ten musical ‘pictures’, suggested by Hartmann’s, are interspersed with ‘promenades’ leading from painting to painting. From children playing in the gardens of the Tuileries to a catacomb of skulls; from unhatched chicks to Russian folklore’s chief witch, Baba Yaga, all of life is here.

Two ways to hear Pictures at an Exhibition

There are two performing traditions: one pays scrupulous attention to the text; the other freely ‘pianostrates’ it (Vladimir Horowitz’s term) with extra effects. What’s vital is that the pianist is true to Mussorgsky’s spirit, steeped in Russian 19th-century Realism. That spirit makes Pictures a gift to an imaginative performer.

This great work was later orchestrated by various composers. The most famous orchestration was made by Maurice Ravel in 1922. Sir Henry Wood, founder of the Proms, had previously made an orchestration in 1915 – but when he heard Ravel’s transcription, he found it so superior that he wouldn’t allow his own orchestration to be performed!

By the way, you can hear the orchestral version of Pictures at an Exhibition at the 2024 BBC Proms. It’s being performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kazuki Yamada for Prom 43 (Thursday 22 August).

What is the best recording of Pictures at an Exhibition?

Sviatoslav Richter: The Sofia Recital (1958)

Phillips 464-7342

The recording of Sviatoslav Richter, live in recital in Sofia in 1958, is a legend, and with good reason. Sound quality is poor – rumbly, crackly, audience-laden – but there’s an overriding sense that we’re witnessing Richter manage that extreme rarity: the realising of an ideal.

This towering Russian pianist made it his mission to convey Mussorgsky exactly as written, but to embody in his performance of the unadulterated score all the emotion and philosophical great-heartedness that others try to achieve through embellishment.