Mussorgsky: Pictures from an Exhibition; Prokofiev: Visions Fugitives & Sarcasms

Featuring

Steven Osborne
Modest Mussorgsky
Sergei Prokofiev

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Critical Reception

The original version of Musorgsky's "Pictures from an Exhibition" was not published until 1931; earlier editions, including the one Ravel used for his famous orchestration, contained emendations by Rimsky-Korsakov.

Performer Biography

Steven Osborne, the pianist on this recording, has received numerous awards, including a Gramophone Award in 2009 and first prize at both the Naumburg International Competition and the Clara Haskil Competition.

Composer Biography

Prokofiev's "Sarcasms," composed between 1912 and 1914, are considered among his most experimental works before his self-imposed exile starting in 1918.

Composition History

Modest Musorgsky composed his "Pictures from an Exhibition" in just three weeks in June 1874, inspired by a memorial exhibition of works by his recently deceased friend, Viktor Hartmann, an architect, designer, and painter.

Compositional Technique

Musorgsky's "Pictures from an Exhibition" includes a recurring "Promenade" theme, which represents the composer himself walking through the exhibition and transitioning between the different musical depictions of Hartmann's artworks.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Serge Prokofiev's "Visions fugitives" are musical snapshots of his characteristic moods, inspired by the Symbolist poet Konstantin Balmont's lines about seeing "whole worlds" in "every fugitive vision."