Pictures at an Exhibition - Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881)

[kernelbogey]

Inspired by this terrific performance by Teo Gheorghiu on Through the Night just now (03:09 AM) to lay down this new thread quickly in case the forum goes down unexpectedly for the planned maintenance shutdown.

[Pulcinella]

There have been many posts about this work, its title, and various orchestrations that I'm surprised they weren't already in a devoted thread, but I can't find it if there is one!

[smittims]

I was surprised to discover how many orchestrations there have been , and that the famous Ravel was quite late in the day, after Stokowski and Henry Wood.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Wikipedia lists the following orchestrations:-

Mikhail Tushmalov

Sir Henry Wood

Leo Funtek

Maurice Ravel

Giuseppe Becce

Leonidas Caillet

Leopold Stokowski

Walter Goehr

Sergei Gorchakov

Nikolai Golovanov

Lawrence Leonard

Vladimir Ashkenazy

Francisco Mignone

Thomas Wilbrandt

Emile Naoumoff

Mekong Delta

Julian Yu

Jason Wight Wingate

Hidemaro Konoye

Leonard Slatkin

Vaclav Smetacek

Peter Breiner

Thomasz Golka

David DeBor Canfield

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

…but nothing from Rimsky-Korsakov

[kernelbogey]

Inspired by this terrific performance by Teo Gheorghiu on Through the Night just now (03:09 AM) to lay down this new thread quickly in case the forum goes down unexpectedly for the planned maintenance shutdown.

I wrote & posted more than this - it seems to have got lost in the night, perhaps run over by a runaway server at the Level Crossing.....

I will try later, after the matitudinal cuppa, to retrieve what has been lost.

I couldn't find a prior thread either, but someone has posted a longer and more detailed list, IIRC, than Alpie's, of orchestrations.

[french frank]

Surprisingly, it seems that most of Hartmann's exhibition pictures are presumed lost. Apparently Musorgsky had been given two of them. A good account of Musorgsky's career is on one of the Tchaikovsky websites.

[richardfinegold]

Surprisingly, it seems that most of Hartmann's exhibition pictures are presumed lost. Apparently Musorgsky had been given two of them. A good account of Musorgsky's career is on one of the Tchaikovsky websites.

Was Herman Goering a Hartmann fan? They may be hidden in some abondoned salt mine.
I listened to the Byron Janis RCA recording recently. It’s pretty impressive.

[kernelbogey]

I wrote & posted more than this - it seems to have got lost in the night, perhaps run over by a runaway server at the Level Crossing.....

This was a reference to trying to get my new topic up and running before the server closed down; I had joked that this felt a bit like racing across a railway level crossing as the red lights started flashing and the barriers began their slow descent. (Not that I have ever tried this.)

I will try later, after the matitudinal cuppa, to retrieve what has been lost.

It seems to have been permanently lost.

I couldn't find a prior thread either, but someone has posted a longer and more detailed list, IIRC, than Alpie's, of orchestrations.

I've taken another look for this: I could have sworn that I had seen - at this sort of time of the morning - an Alpie-style list of transcriptions of PAAE; but it remains elusive.

[cloughie]

…but nothing from Rimsky-Korsakov

…and Modest lived up to his name by not having a go beefing up his own work!

Tomita also tinkered with ‘Pictures’ and his electronic keyboard interpretation brought it clearly into the late C20th withe tweeting unhatched chicks shifting between left and right speakers!

[kernelbogey]

Tomita also tinkered with ‘Pictures’ and his electronic keyboard interpretation brought it clearly into the late C20th withe tweeting unhatched chicks shifting between left and right speakers!

Cloughie, is that the 'Snowflakes are dancing' chap?

EDIT: Yes it is.

[CallMePaul]

…and Modest lived up to his name by not having a go beefing up his own work!

Tomita also tinkered with ‘Pictures’ and his electronic keyboard interpretation brought it clearly into the late C20th withe tweeting unhatched chicks shifting between left and right speakers!

Emerson, Lake & Palmer also made an arrangement for their prog-rock group, which included some extra pieces (as I remember - my brother was/is a big ELP fan and I don't know if he still has the album) by group members.

For the piano version I would recommend Claire Chevalier's recording on a Becker piano of the composer's period. As German-born Becker was the best-known piuano maker in St Petersburg, it is very likely that Musorgsky himself played such an instrument. Anyone interested in Russian pianos should read Sophy Roberts' book The Lost Pianos of Siberia, which has a lot of information even if in parts it makes sad reading (many of the pianos are unplayable).

[cloughie]

Emerson, Lake & Palmer also made an arrangement for their prog-rock group, which included some extra pieces (as I remember - my brother was/is a big ELP fan and I don't know if he still has the album) by group members.

For the piano version I would recommend Claire Chevalier's recording on a Becker piano of the composer's period. As German-born Becker was the best-known piuano maker in St Petersburg, it is very likely that Musorgsky himself played such an instrument. Anyone interested in Russian pianos should read Sophy Roberts' book The Lost Pianos of Siberia, which has a lot of information even if in parts it makes sad reading (many of the piqanos are unplayable).

My only regret with ELP’s formation was that it robbed King Crimson of its best ever vocalist - though it undoubtedly gave Keith Emerson an improvement on Lee Jackson in the Nice!

[Pulcinella]

One of the CDs in my collection combines the original piano version (Mischa Dichter) with the Ravel orchestration (Rotterdam Philharmonic, Edo de Waart):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pictures-Exhibition-Orchestral-Piano-Versions/dp/B00000E3KU/ref=sr_1_2?crid=37L743X8CL0ZG&keywords=Mussorgsky+de+waart&qid=1700206148&s=music&sprefix=mussorgsky+de+waart%2Cpopular%2C57&sr=1-2

I must give it another spin soon.

[richardfinegold]

My only regret with ELP’s formation was that it robbed King Crimson of its best ever vocalist - though it undoubtedly gave Keith Emerson an improvement on Lee Jackson in the Nice!

I was a big ELP fan at the dawn of puberty, but can you honestly listen to their pretentious bombast from back inthe day without cringing?