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Pictures at an Exhibition Introduction: Promenade |
Composed: 1874; orchestrated in 1922 by Maurice Ravel
Estimated length: 32 minutes |
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Born on March 21, 1839, in Karevo, Russian Empire; died on March 28, 1881, in St. Petersburg. |
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First performance: Ravel’s arrangement was premiered on October 19, 1922, in Paris, with Serge Koussevitzky conducting. |
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First Nashville Symphony performance: January 21, 1958, with Guy Taylor conducting at War Memorial Auditorium
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The presence of Ravel frames our program, since it was the French composer’s extraordinary orchestral realization of the source material by Modest Mussorgsky that transformed Pictures at an Exhibition into a favorite of the concert repertoire. In the summer of 1873, Mussorgsky was shattered by the sudden death of his friend Viktor Alexandrovich Hartmann (1834-1873), a fascinating and multi-faceted artist. Hartmann’s output ranged from watercolors, oil paintings, and architectural sketches to costume designs. A memorial exhibition was displayed in 1874, which Mussorgsky recreates in his musical portraits—bringing himself into the picture through a recurring theme that connects the various sections.
The inspiration for Hartmann’s quirky and varied artwork ranged from Russian folklore to places in France and medieval Italy. Mussorgsky wrote a suite of short but interlocking vignettes for solo piano within a mere three weeks in June 1874. Pictures impressed his friends when he played it at private gatherings, but the disorganized Mussorgsky turned to other projects and left it unpublished.
The first edition of Pictures at an Exhibition to appear in print was a version of the solo piano suite edited by his younger friend and former roommate, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. In 1922, nearly a half-century after Mussorgsky had composed this piano music, Ravel was commissioned to orchestrate the suite by Serge Koussevitzky, who was based in Paris at the time (shortly before beginning his legendary tenure as the music director of the Boston Symphony). Ravel was not the first to attempt to do so, but his version soon established itself as the gold standard.
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
A brightly confident theme stated at the outset (“Promenade”) conjures an imaginary spectator strolling through the Hartmann exhibition before stopping to linger and admire a particular artwork. This self-portrait of Mussorgsky provides the glue between section.
Ten works by Hartmann are “translated” into musical terms. First is “Gnomus,” a drawing of a deformed gnome likely meant as a design for a nutcracker, which is followed by “The Old Castle,” an architectural watercolor of an Italian castle. Drawings of the Tuileries gardens, a place where children play but also quarrel and of a big-wheeled oxcart await as the spectator continues.
The “Promenade” becomes more wistful before we encounter Hartmann’s costume designs for a “Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks.” A pairing of what were originally two separate pictures illustrating “two Jews: rich and poor” (“Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuÿle”) has ignited debate as to whether Mussorgsky intended an anti-Semitic caricature. “The Marketplace at Limoges” juxtaposes a scherzo-ish picture of urban life with the eerie dark colors of the ancient catacombs in Paris (“Catacomb”).
A fiercer scherzo follows in “The Hut on Fowl’s Legs,” which is based on Hartmann’s design for a clock that incorporates the image of the witch Baba Yaga from Russian folklore. Sealing this musical monument to Mussorgsky’s fellow artist and friend is “The Great Gate of Kiev,” which pays tribute to Hartmann’s architectural design for a gate “in the old Russian style” (which was never built).
By the end, the spectator merges with the artwork being admired. For his part, Ravel draws on a widely ranging palette of orchestral colors, with striking sonic contrasts that enhance the “conversation” Mussorgsky had initiated by reflecting on the art of Hartmann. The exquisite precision of Ravel’s soundscapes invites comparison with the technique of a great painter—bringing us full circle.
Scored for 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 3 oboes (3rd doubling English horn), 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, alto saxophone, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, celesta, 2 harps and strings
− Thomas May is the Nashville Symphony's program annotator.
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