Duo Amie | 4th Prom & Chicks in their Shells - Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Arr by Charles Schiff @DuoAmie | Uploaded March 2020 | Updated October 2024, 16 hours ago.
Pictures at An Exhibition (Mussorgsky)
Despite now being his most well-known work, at the time of Mussorgsky’s death, his Pictures at an Exhibition had been neither published nor performed. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakove finished the manuscript and it was published in 1886. Based on ten drawings/watercolors by his friend Victor Hartmann (many of which have unfortunately been lost), the piece was originally written for piano solo. Ravel arranged the piece for orchestra in 1922. Several additional arrangements for various instruments have also been created, including this one for cello and piano by Charles Schiff.
Hartmann’s original drawing for this movement has survived. These drawings were sketches for the Ballet “Trilby”, for which he designed children’s costumes to look like unhatched chicks. The sharp beak of the chickens is mirrored in the pecking quality of the music in the opening phrase of the movement. Clucking and quick scampering then ensue as cello and piano chase each other through chromatic scales.
Duo Amie Presents Melodic Canvases
Julie Reimann, Cello
Ellyses Kuan, Piano
Recorded on November 3, 2018 at Longyear Museum
Pictures at An Exhibition (Mussorgsky)
Despite now being his most well-known work, at the time of Mussorgsky’s death, his Pictures at an Exhibition had been neither published nor performed. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakove finished the manuscript and it was published in 1886. Based on ten drawings/watercolors by his friend Victor Hartmann (many of which have unfortunately been lost), the piece was originally written for piano solo. Ravel arranged the piece for orchestra in 1922. Several additional arrangements for various instruments have also been created, including this one for cello and piano by Charles Schiff.
Hartmann’s original drawing for this movement has survived. These drawings were sketches for the Ballet “Trilby”, for which he designed children’s costumes to look like unhatched chicks. The sharp beak of the chickens is mirrored in the pecking quality of the music in the opening phrase of the movement. Clucking and quick scampering then ensue as cello and piano chase each other through chromatic scales.
Duo Amie Presents Melodic Canvases
Julie Reimann, Cello
Ellyses Kuan, Piano
Recorded on November 3, 2018 at Longyear Museum
