# Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition



## Ciel_Rouge (May 16, 2008)

This strange suite has a recurrent theme that glues the whole thing together and which I rather.... dislike. However, I love most of the pieces in between (except for the "chickens" part). I especially love the part which comes at about 5:00, which seems to be based on some kind of an ethnic-derived theme. Also, I discovered that in the second half of the about 60-minute work, there is something which starts almost exactly like the beginning of the Ride of the Valkyries by Wagner - a sort of a wasp-hive sound. Is it a deliberate quotation from Wagner, or something else? Anybody noticed that?


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## BuddhaBandit (Dec 31, 2007)

This is one of my favorite piano works (yes, PIANO, i.e. the original version- although most people know it from Ravel's orchestration)- I happen to like the "Promenade" theme a lot. I would guess that your ethnically-derived theme is part of "The Gnome", which is one of the rhythmically more interesting parts of the suite. I've never noticed the Valkryie theme before, though.


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## david johnson (Jun 25, 2007)

wagner? it's doubtful because russian composers of that time mostly tried to stay away from germanic influence...tchaikovsky excepted.

dj


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## Ciel_Rouge (May 16, 2008)

The Gnome is at the beginning, at about 5:00 we have The Old Castle and this is what I meant:






For the "Valkyrie" part in it, compare those:

Mussorgsky

Wagner


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## Yagan Kiely (Feb 6, 2008)

A student at my uni played from memory once. Good stuff.


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## R-F (Feb 12, 2008)

I love Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks, it's so delightfully weird! Promenade is really nice too.


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## shsherm (Jan 24, 2008)

I first heard the Ravel orchestration when I was in my first or second year of high school in Chicago. A friend purchased the Reiner CSO LP and we had a good old time listening to this great music. More recently I attended a performance where the pianist Alessio Bax , a man who won the Leeds competition, played the piano version which I thoroughly enjoyed.


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