Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition features a 'Promenade' theme that changes rhythm and is transformed into 'Con mortuis in lingua mortua' (With the dead in the language of the dead) to represent the composer's journey through catacombs.
Composer Biography
Viktor Hartmann, the artist whose works inspired Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, died prematurely at the age of thirty-nine.
Composition History
Tchaikovsky's Les Saisons (The Seasons) was a commission from the periodical Nouvelliste, with one piece provided for each monthly issue.
Recording & Production
This recording uses 24-bit / 96 kHz technology, which offers a dynamic range up to 48 dB greater and 256 times the resolution of standard 16-bit recordings.
Performer Biography
Barry Douglas, an Irish pianist, won the Gold Medal at the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow.
Critical Reception
Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition was initially better known in its orchestral arrangements, with Ravel's 1922 version for Serge Koussevitzky being the most famous.
Composition History
Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition was composed in less than three weeks in June 1874, as a memorial to his friend, artist Viktor Hartmann.
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