Modest Mussorgsky / Leonhard Lawrence: 'Pictures at an Exhibition' for piano and orchestra

Modest Mussorgsky / Leonhard Lawrence: "Pictures at an Exhibition" for piano and orchestra
- a Romanian premiere-
Concert with the Philharmonic Orchestra "Gheorghe Dima", Brasov, Romania
Date: 5th of May 2011
Soloist: Adriana Paler-Nicolescu
Conductor: Cristian Orosanu

Pictures at an Exhibition, musical work in 10 movements by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky, was inspired by a visit to an art exhibition. Each of the movements represents one of the drawings or artworks on display. Although originally composed in 1874 for solo piano, Pictures became better known in orchestral form, particularly as arranged by French composer Maurice Ravel in 1922. Ravel's version was used in the Disney film Fantasia (1940) to accompany demons dancing in the dark. The work was also orchestrated by other composers, such as Sir Henry J. Wood(1918), Leopold Stokowski (1939), and Vladimir Ashkenazy (1982). In 1971 the British popular musicgroup Emerson, Lake and Palmer devoted an entire album to their own art-rock interpretation of the piece. Mussorgsky composed Pictures as a memorial to his friend, the Russian artist Viktor Hartmann, who had died in 1873 at age 39. 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. By early summer 1874, he had completed the work, a lengthy and fiendishly difficult suite for solo piano.
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, the composer 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:

1."The Gnome," a depiction of an awkward dwarf conveyed through irregular rhythms and forceful outbursts;

2."The Old Castle," a solemn and lyrical portrayal of a medieval troubadour singing on the grounds of a grand castle;

3."Tuileries," a sprightly sketch of children at play in the well-known Tuileries Gardens in Paris; and

4. "Cattle," a ponderous characterization of the lumbering of a large Polish ox cart.

The scampering fifth movement,

5. "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

6."Two Jews: One Rich, One Poor" through the interplay of a strident melody in the lower register and a twittering, chantlike theme in the upper.

There comes the middle Promenade.

The folksy and cheerful quality of the seventh movement,

7."The Market at Limoges," is neutralized by the eighth,

8. "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.

9."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,

10."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.

Adriana Paler-Nicolescu is one of the best contemporary Romanian pianists, who completed her artistic education in Vienna, where she is living since 1999.

She won 27 piano prizes and has been invited to play in Austria, Romania, France, Luxembourg, Germany, England, and abroad.

[TenorCantusFirmus]

I actually find this piece to be pretty suitable to be transcribed for piano and orchestra.

[xdygmnyrdf]

one of the nicest performances of this piece.

[harmoniker]

The strings are just not loud enough to compete with the brass.

[wotan]

What a shambles! The technical ability of the pianist is first class but she had to battle against one of the most inept professional (?) orchestra I have ever heard. Wrong notes and fluffed sounds, especially in the brass, it was excruciating. The conductor would have been better employed selling tickets at the door. The orchestration was nowhere near the brilliance of the Ravel. I would give the orchestra "nul point' for performance and a lot of sympathy to the soloist for her perseverance.

[ecopollini]

Eso no es un verdadero arreglo, sólo es ir alternando la orquesta con el piano...

[garryhumphreys]

Shambles indeed, another one being that their ain't no such person as Leonhard Lawrence! This is the arrangement for piano and orchestra made in 1977 by the British conductor LAWRENCE LEONARD! Good to see an orchestra departing from the standard Ravel orchestration when there are so many others (about 30, including Henry Wood, Leopold Stokowski, Leo Funtek, Mikhail Tushmalov, etc., etc.) but they deserve a better performance than this!

[martyheresniak]

Absolutely ghastly. Nice to hear the Leonard transcription, but the quality of the playing is substandard and the microphone placement horrid. I finally have come across a YouTube performance where there are more negative comments than positive and so deservedly so.

[keybawd]

The orchestra is not good - the horns, for example,  are totally ghastly. A predictabale transcription, nothing illuminating. The conductor should cut off his ridiculous pony tail and take conducting lessons. His right and left hands are mostly mirror images of each other. Five out of ten for trying.