Pictures at an Exhibition
The ten movement suite for solo piano, Pictures at an Exhibition, by Modest Mussorgsky was written as a memorial to the composer's friend, artist Viktor Hartmann. Each of the suite's movements is meant to depict a different painting or sketch by Hartmann as viewed by Mussorgsky at an exhibition arranged in honor of his departed friend. The memorable Promenade that introduces the work and serves to link many of the movements, is intended to represent moving about the exhibit. Due to the virtuosity required to perform the work, it is often used by pianists as a showpiece. However, the work is probably more well known to audiences in one of its many orchestrated versions, with the most famous orchestration done by French composer Maurice Ravel.
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