Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition

Modest Mussorgsky’s famous Pictures at an Exhibition began its life as a ten-part suite written for the piano – but most people could be forgiven for not knowing that, given the huge popularity of Maurice Ravel’s orchestral version. That’s what’s on offer here, in a magnificent performance by the Wiener Philharmoniker under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel. Listening to the richness and density of this arrangement, it’s hard to imagine how all of these ideas could have been conveyed by a single person at a piano keyboard, and of course they couldn’t; by expanding the music to fit the enormous timbral palette of a symphony orchestra, by multiplying instrumental parts, and by extending notes and chords far longer than would be possible on a piano, Ravel was bringing new ideas to the table and created what is arguably an entirely new work. It’s also an homage to one of Ravel’s great but underrated predecessors.