Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition

The Russian artist Viktor Hartmann died suddenly in 1873 at the age of 39. A few months later in 1874, a memorial exhibition of Hartmann’s works was held. Mussorgsky owned two paintings by Hartmann that were included in the exhibition.

I suspect that most of our readers know about Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, composed for piano in 1874. Unless you have a particular interest in piano music, you are probably more likely to encounter an orchestral version, the most popular being the 1922 orchestration by Maurice Ravel. Ravel excelled at orchestration, and there is much to admire in what he did with Pictures, but I think the piano version offers more.

The work is naturally episodic. Each movement depicts a painting of different subjects and moods. The opening Promenade returns in various guises in between many of the movements, giving the work something of a first-person feel as the composer leads the listener through the exhibit. As an homage to Mussorgsky’s friend Hartmann, the work is very personal, and I think the piano version conveys this in a way that the massed instruments of the orchestra cannot.

There are quite a few orchestrations other than Ravel’s. And there is more than one piano version. The first to appear in print (1886) was edited by Rimsky-Korsakov after Mussorgsky’s death. In 1931, a more scholarly edition was created by Pavel Lamm that followed the original manuscript more accurately. It was published with the complete works in 1939. The recording featured here follows the Lamm edition.