# Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition [1874]



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Mussorgsky's _Pictures at an Exhibition_ [1874] is currently on the 5th tier of the Talk Classical community's favorite and most highly recommended works.

Wikipedia has an excellent article about it, including enough analysis that it amounts to a really good listening guide.

Trout has compiled a list of recommended recordings for the original piano version:



> Condensed Listing:
> 1.	Richter	(1958, Sofia)
> 2.	Horowitz	(1951, Carnegie Hall)
> 3.	Pogorelich	(1995)
> ...


Trout also has one for Ravel's orchestration of this work:



> Condensed Listing:
> 1.	Reiner (cond.), Chicago Symphony Orchestra	(1957)
> 2.	Karajan (cond.), Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra	(1966)
> 3.	Solti (cond.), Chicago Symphony Orchestra	(1980)
> ...


The main questions of this thread are: *Do you like this work? Do you love it? Why? What do you like about it? Do you have any reservations about it?*

And of course, what are your favorite recordings?


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Also, for reference, here is an old thread comparing the original piano version to Ravel's orchestration.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

One of my "desert island compositions", i.e. for me the 100 most favourite compositions of all time. I love the original as well as the Ravel orchestration. I also have about 30 other orchestrations/transcriptions on CD, ranging from 44 pianos to heavy metal band - it's a bit of an obsession. Possibly because this is the very first piece of classical music I heard (at highschool in the music classes).


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I like it for different reasons, both the piano original and Ravel's orchestration. I especially like the clever way in which _Promenade_ is used a recurring variation. Perhaps my biggest reason for liking it is because Mussorgsky actually managed to complete it: I can't think of another composer who left so many promising works either in progress or abandoned in relation to the handful of major compositions he did give to us.


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

I have never understood the popularity of this work, but it has been a while since I have listened to it. I really should give it another shot- preferably in the original piano version this time. Ravel's most famous orchestration is, of course, brilliant, but I think it is a bit too lavish for Mussorgsky's conception. I have always thought the piano writing spectacular and Mussorgsky's interpretive imagination of the pictures impressive (I don't find the pictures particularly moving in themselves, but the way Mussorgsky translates them to sound could sell anybody on them!). Still, the music has yet to click with me. Maybe I will have a listen to Richter this morning! Been a while since I've heard anything from 'ol Sviatoslav anyway.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

A piece I enjoy but rarely listen to so I don't collect recordings. I have an old Telarc CD of the Ravel orchestration, and a piano version by Boris Berman. And as a teenager I listened to the ELP live recording which is quite entertaining and well done.


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## soni (Jul 3, 2018)

I encouraged the creation of this thread because the piece was the only one in the top 5 tiers without a reference thread. However, I'm now listening to the entire work for the first time ever, and I've only just realised that this is a masterpiece! Wow, thanks TC!


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I find myself listening to and enjoying the piano version more. Richter's Sofia recording is amazing (but the sound it not) and I also enjoy the Kissin's and Pogorelich's recordings. Gergiev's recording of the Ravel orchestrated version strikes me as very good but it is not a work I have sought out multiple recordings of. The Funtek orchestration (I have a CD of Segerstam conducting it) is obviously not as fine as Ravel's but it does sound more Russian.

Edit - The Fazil Say recording is another I enjoy.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

It's one of the works I listened to a great deal as a youngster with the result being that I don't hear it much in recent decades. However, I still consider it a magnificent composition, especially in the Ravel orchestration.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Enthusiast said:


> The Funtek orchestration...is obviously not as fine as Ravel's but it does sound more Russian.


I'm glad to see the Funtek mention, but I think you're wrong in its assessment - for me, it's every bit as good as Ravel's. Another transcription that I think is even better than Ravel's is the Lucien Cailliet that he did for Ormandy in Philadelphia, and has been shamefully ignored for decades. It took me several listens before this work stuck in my ear, but even today I rarely listen to it since it seems I wind up playing it two or three times each year - almost always in the Ravel! Every now and then I've played the Tushmalov (the first orchestral version) or the Gorchakov (very un-Ravel) which is a lot of fun. The Stokowski is quite brazen and over-the-top, but quite effective with audiences.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

^ Probably familiarity and Ravel's very fine palette ... but I do feel more comfortable with Funtek (it seems closer to the piano version). I had no idea there were so many orchestrations!


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

If anyone is interested, Craig Wright, a music professor at Yale, is pretty enthusiastic about this work. If you can find a video of him lecturing on it, you might enjoy that. It'll be somewhere in his "listening to music" lectures.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Enthusiast said:


> ^ Probably familiarity and Ravel's very fine palette ... but I do feel more comfortable with Funtek (it seems closer to the piano version). I had no idea there were so many orchestrations!


Oh...there's a bunch more. One by the founder of the BBC Proms, Henry Wood, is pretty grey and lifeless. There's a terrific brass band by version Howarth that's been around quite a while - well worth listening to. There are versions for strings only, organ, saxophone ensemble. Then there's an odd one by pianist/conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy. He certainly knows the piano version, and knows the orchestra - I don't think anyone else other than he has played it. It's actually quite good but you can tell he was highly influenced by Ravel. I guess once you've heard that, it's hard to get out of your head. One other peculiar version is by Tomita - for synthesizer. A relic of the '70s. And...there's even a solo guitar version.


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## Bigbang (Jun 2, 2019)

science said:


> Mussorgsky's _Pictures at an Exhibition_ [1874] is currently on the 5th tier of the Talk Classical community's favorite and most highly recommended works.
> 
> Wikipedia has an excellent article about it, including enough analysis that it amounts to a really good listening guide.
> 
> ...


I have Horowitz (april 1951) Urania label. I would be curious if anyone has any comments comparing this to his RCA versions.


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## Oldhoosierdude (May 29, 2016)

I quite enjoy this work. I don't know how musically accurate it is but I call it (and Elgar's Enigma) musical descriptions. I like how they define a subject or person. I have the recording by Giulini and Mackerras. Both good.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

This was in my father's very, very small classical music library (Dorati or Ormandy?), so I've heard it since I was a child. The Great Gate of Kiev was on a Philips demo CD that came with my first player. That blew me away. Right now Solti and Reiner get the most listenings. The only piano version I have is Janis.

In recent years I've been taken with this.






I've seen it three times (at NYCB).


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

This whole movement is great, but this is just beautiful


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## Brahmsianhorn (Feb 17, 2017)

I like Reiner in good sound, but overall:


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

_Pictures_ (Mussorgsky/Ravel orchestration) was one of my very first introductions to classical music with an Leonard Bernstein LP I purchased as a teenager for _Night on Bald Mountain_ that came with _Pictures_. It's still a favorite. Whether or not it deserves to be may just be a matter of sentimental value.


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## Guest (Aug 2, 2020)

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If you want something a bit newer, Alice Sarah Ott's piano recording is exceptional, and the orchestrated version recorded by Gustavo Dudamel is my favorite.


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## UniversalTuringMachine (Jul 4, 2020)

Richter's 58 sofia recital remains the pinnacle of performance of this work.


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

I should reiterate, 3:10-3:14 is quite possibly the most beautiful chord change of all time


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## Lokomotiva (Aug 2, 2020)

Ethereality said:


> I should reiterate, 3:10-3:14 is quite possibly the most beautiful chord change of all time


Personally I'm more into the chromatic shift in 4:22

A♭ - A♭ - A♭ - G♮ - G♭ - F♮
E♭ - D♮ - D♭ - D♭ - D♭ - C♮

Glorious. I feel it doesn't sound as great as in the original version though.

My father loved this composition (the piano version mostly). I remember my fascination with Russian music started with Sheherezade, and next came either this or Rachmaninov's 3rd Concerto.


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

Right. We're pointing out reasons it may belong in the 5th Tier as the harmonies and orchestrations are comparable or even surpassing many of Bach's in its unique way, such as the common example of harmonic beauty Cantata BWV 54. The 4:22 you mention has quite a lovely meter!


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