Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Performed by Steven Osborne.
I - Promenade. Allegro giusto, nel modo rustico, senza allegrezza, ma poco sostenuto - (attacca): 0:00
II - 1. Gnomus. Sempre vivo: 1:15
III - Promenade. Moderato commodo assai e con delicatezza - (attacca): 4:03
IV - 2. The Old Castle. Andantino molto cantabile e con dolore: 4:54
V - Promenade. Moderato non tanto, pesamente - (attacca): 9:32
VI - 3. The Tuileries Gardens. Allegretto non troppo, capriccioso: 9:56
VII - 4. Bydlo. Sempre moderato, pesante: 10:55
VIII - Promenade. Tranquillo - (attacca): 14:45
IX - 5. Ballet of the Chickens in their Shells: Scherzino. vivo, leggiero: 15:34
X - 6. Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle. Andante - Andante grave: 16:44
XI - Promenade. Allegro giusto, nel modo russico, poco sostenuto - (attacca): 19:05
XII - 7. The Market: Place at Limoges. Allegretto vivo, sempre scherzando - (attacca): 20:20
XIII - 8. The Catacombs (Sepulchrum Romanum). Largo - (attacca): 21:42
XIV - Con mortuis in lingua mortua. Andante non troppo, con lamento: 24:27
XV - 9. The Hut on Fowl's Legs (Baba-Yaga). Allegro con brio, feroce - Andante mosso - Allegro molto - (attacca): 26:38
XVI - 10. The Great Gate of Kiev. Allegro alla breve. Maestoso. Con grandezza: 29:58
Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" was composed between June 2-22 of 1874, during his creative peak after the premiere of the opera "Goris Godunov". It was written after the death of Russian artist and close friend Viktor Hartmann, after which an exhibition of Hartmann’s pictures was organised in the Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg. Mussorgsky went to the exhibition and was inspired to compose his piano piece in memory of his friend. Both Mussorgsky and Hartmann, as kindred spirits, were part of an emerging Nationalistic trend in Russian art. It was probably premiered by Mussorgsky himself in one of his piano recitals.
"Pictures at an Exhibition" describes someone walking round the exhibition and looking at the pictures, by far Mussorgsky's most ambitious solo piano piece. The ten pictures that are musically described were drawings and watercolours. Vladimir Stasov, to whom the work is dedicated, wrote brief descriptions for each section. Some of Hartmann’s original pictures are now lost, but six have been identified with the movements of Mussorgsky’s suite. It was published in 1886, five years after Mussorgsky's death in a version slightly edited by Rimsky-Korsakov. The original version was restored in a 1931 critical edition. As early as 1886, many composers and musicians have realised several arrangements for virtually any kind of combination of instruments and ensembles. The most commonly performed is Maurice Ravel's arrangement for full orchestra.
The work opens with a "Promenade" in 5/4 that serves as a unifying device throughout; it is a portrayal of the composer himself walking from one painting to the next. The first picture is "Gnomus," inspired by a design for a toy nutcracker that Hartmann drew in 1869. Another promenade is followed by "The Old Castle," a mysterious, lonely evocation built on pedal tones. "Tuileries" is inspired by a watercolor of children at play in the garden of the Tuileries. This bright and impressionistic piece is followed by the heavy tread of "Bydlo" (a Polish oxcart). Mussorgsky's setting of "Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks" is a wildly imaginative scherzo. A stern melody in a Jewish-music-derived scale opens "Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle," in which a wealthy Jew is portrayed by an insistent repeating figure in the treble, a poor Jew in the bass.
The rapid patter of haggling housewives characterizes "The Market Place in Limoges." In another sudden change in mood, "Catacombs," which pictures Hartmann himself touring a vast catacomb of skulls, is rendered in naked chord progressions. "The Hut on Fowl's Legs (Baba-Yaga)" was inspired by Hartmann's design for a fourteenth century-style clock in the shape of a witch's hat. Mussorgsky transforms it into a miniature tone poem about Baba Yaga, the legendary Russian witch who devoured the souls of children. After a grand flourish, the work ends with "The Great Gate of Kiev," inspired by a never-implemented design Hartmann submitted to an architecture competition. Pictures of an Exhibition comes to a close with rich, booming chords which evoke bells.
Pictures: Six pictures by Hartmann.
Sources: tinyurl.com/ysovtzs2 and tinyurl.com/yrwh886u
Score: tinyurl.com/y9utobbb
Performed by Steven Osborne.
I - Promenade. Allegro giusto, nel modo rustico, senza allegrezza, ma poco sostenuto - (attacca): 0:00
II - 1. Gnomus. Sempre vivo: 1:15
III - Promenade. Moderato commodo assai e con delicatezza - (attacca): 4:03
IV - 2. The Old Castle. Andantino molto cantabile e con dolore: 4:54
V - Promenade. Moderato non tanto, pesamente - (attacca): 9:32
VI - 3. The Tuileries Gardens. Allegretto non troppo, capriccioso: 9:56
VII - 4. Bydlo. Sempre moderato, pesante: 10:55
VIII - Promenade. Tranquillo - (attacca): 14:45
IX - 5. Ballet of the Chickens in their Shells: Scherzino. vivo, leggiero: 15:34
X - 6. Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle. Andante - Andante grave: 16:44
XI - Promenade. Allegro giusto, nel modo russico, poco sostenuto - (attacca): 19:05
XII - 7. The Market: Place at Limoges. Allegretto vivo, sempre scherzando - (attacca): 20:20
XIII - 8. The Catacombs (Sepulchrum Romanum). Largo - (attacca): 21:42
XIV - Con mortuis in lingua mortua. Andante non troppo, con lamento: 24:27
XV - 9. The Hut on Fowl's Legs (Baba-Yaga). Allegro con brio, feroce - Andante mosso - Allegro molto - (attacca): 26:38
XVI - 10. The Great Gate of Kiev. Allegro alla breve. Maestoso. Con grandezza: 29:58
Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" was composed between June 2-22 of 1874, during his creative peak after the premiere of the opera "Goris Godunov". It was written after the death of Russian artist and close friend Viktor Hartmann, after which an exhibition of Hartmann’s pictures was organised in the Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg. Mussorgsky went to the exhibition and was inspired to compose his piano piece in memory of his friend. Both Mussorgsky and Hartmann, as kindred spirits, were part of an emerging Nationalistic trend in Russian art. It was probably premiered by Mussorgsky himself in one of his piano recitals.
"Pictures at an Exhibition" describes someone walking round the exhibition and looking at the pictures, by far Mussorgsky's most ambitious solo piano piece. The ten pictures that are musically described were drawings and watercolours. Vladimir Stasov, to whom the work is dedicated, wrote brief descriptions for each section. Some of Hartmann’s original pictures are now lost, but six have been identified with the movements of Mussorgsky’s suite. It was published in 1886, five years after Mussorgsky's death in a version slightly edited by Rimsky-Korsakov. The original version was restored in a 1931 critical edition. As early as 1886, many composers and musicians have realised several arrangements for virtually any kind of combination of instruments and ensembles. The most commonly performed is Maurice Ravel's arrangement for full orchestra.
The work opens with a "Promenade" in 5/4 that serves as a unifying device throughout; it is a portrayal of the composer himself walking from one painting to the next. The first picture is "Gnomus," inspired by a design for a toy nutcracker that Hartmann drew in 1869. Another promenade is followed by "The Old Castle," a mysterious, lonely evocation built on pedal tones. "Tuileries" is inspired by a watercolor of children at play in the garden of the Tuileries. This bright and impressionistic piece is followed by the heavy tread of "Bydlo" (a Polish oxcart). Mussorgsky's setting of "Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks" is a wildly imaginative scherzo. A stern melody in a Jewish-music-derived scale opens "Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle," in which a wealthy Jew is portrayed by an insistent repeating figure in the treble, a poor Jew in the bass.
The rapid patter of haggling housewives characterizes "The Market Place in Limoges." In another sudden change in mood, "Catacombs," which pictures Hartmann himself touring a vast catacomb of skulls, is rendered in naked chord progressions. "The Hut on Fowl's Legs (Baba-Yaga)" was inspired by Hartmann's design for a fourteenth century-style clock in the shape of a witch's hat. Mussorgsky transforms it into a miniature tone poem about Baba Yaga, the legendary Russian witch who devoured the souls of children. After a grand flourish, the work ends with "The Great Gate of Kiev," inspired by a never-implemented design Hartmann submitted to an architecture competition. Pictures of an Exhibition comes to a close with rich, booming chords which evoke bells.
Pictures: Six pictures by Hartmann.
Sources: tinyurl.com/ysovtzs2 and tinyurl.com/yrwh886u
Score: tinyurl.com/y9utobbb
