Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 09/14/2016, uploaded on 04/27/2017

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Modest Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ is a ten movement piece, dedicated to the memory of the composer’s Russian friend and artist, Victor Hartmann. Shortly after the artist’s death, Mussorgsky visited a retrospective exhibit of Hartmann’s sketches, stage designs, and architectural studies and felt the need to capture the experience in music. 

The suite consists of musical depictions of 10 paintings by Hartmann, interspersed with a recurring “Promenade” theme, or intermezzo, that represents a visitor—in this case, himself—strolling through the exhibition. The powerful nature of the intermezzi, Mussorgsky acknowledged in one of his letters, reflects his own large physique.

Following the opening “Promenade,” the first four movements, or “pictures,” in order of appearance, are: “The Gnome,” a depiction of an awkward dwarf conveyed through irregular rhythms and forceful outbursts; “The Old Castle,” a solemn and lyrical portrayal of a medieval troubadour singing on the grounds of a grand castle; “Tuileries,” a sprightly sketch of children at play in the well-known Tuileries Gardens in Paris; and “Cattle,” a ponderous characterization of the lumbering of a large Polish ox cart.

The scampering fifth movement, “The Ballet of Unhatched Chicks in Their Shells,” represents a costume design by Hartmann for a children’s ballet. The sixth scene evokes an image of “Two Jews: One Rich, One Poor” through the interplay of a strident melody in the lower register and a twittering chant-like theme in the upper. The folksy and cheerful quality of the seventh movement, “The Market at Limoges,” is neutralized by the eighth, “The Catacombs,” which casts an eerie shadow with ominous chords and variations on the recurring intermezzo.

The last two scenes of Pictures at an Exhibition are the most renowned. “The Hut on Fowl’s Legs” is a nightmarish portrayal of the cackling witch Baba-Yaga on the prowl for her prey. She charges—bounding in a virtuosic passage in octaves—right into the tenth and final picture, “The Great Gate of Kiev.” With a depiction of Hartmann’s sketch of a proposed city gate topped by cupolas in which carillons ring, Mussorgsky brings the piece to a majestic close.                                                            Notes by Betsy Schwarm

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.