Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition

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Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition Program Notes

Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition. Like  other  members  of  The  Mighty  Handful  (Rimsky-Korsakoff,  Borodin,  et  al), Modest Mussorgsky  aimed  to  create  a  Russian  musical  sound.  As  a  very  young  child,  he’d  been  drawn  to  the  piano,  musically  retelling  his  nanny’s  Russian  tales.    In  St.  Petersburg,  he  met  composers  Cui  and  Balakirev,  resigning  his  military  commission  to  pursue  composition.  Aside  from  Pictures,  Mussorgsky’s  popular  works  include  the  tone  poem  Night  on  Bald  Mountain  (featured  in  Disney’s  Fantasia)  and  the  opera  Boris  Godunov.  Mussorgsky  composed  this  piano  suite  in  memory  of  his  friend,  artist  and  architect  Viktor  Hartmann,  who  died  unexpectedly  of  an  aneurysm  aged  39.  Pictures  is  inspired  by  some  of  the  more  than  75  works  shown  at  a  Hartmann  exhibition  the  next  year,  with  several  movements  linked  by  a  Promenade  (walking)  theme.    Sadly,  not  all  the  pictures  survived,  and  it’s  not  always  clear  which  picture  Mussorgsky  describes.    The  conductor  Serge  Koussevitzky  commissioned  French  composer  Maurice  Ravel’s  orchestration,  which  remains  the  most  popular  of  over  thirty  orchestrations.

A  trumpet  solo  opens  the  first  Promenade,  in  Russian  Manner,dz  as  the  viewer  (possibly  Mussorgsky)  walks  between  pictures.

The  sinister  and  mysterious  Gnomus  (gnome)  is  an  arresting  first  artwork.

A  more  subdued  Promenade,  Dzwith  delicacy,  leads  to  –

An  Old  Castle,  evoking  ghostly  nobility  with  a  slow  minor-key  dance  form  a  troubadour  sings,  and  Ravel’s  orchestration  features  an  Alto  saxophone  solo.    One  wonders  if  Mussorgsky  was  familiar  with  Edgar  Allen  Poe’s  1839  The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher,  with  its  melancholy  castle  and  dramatic  end?

A  Promenade,  this  time  heavy, transforms  the  mood,  into:

Tuileries.    Capriciously,  children  play  in  the  17th  Century  Parisian  garden.    Chasing  each  other  around  statues  and  the  garden’s  circular  pools,  their  laughter  and  songs  are  heard  before  they  run  away  –  as  if  called  to  dinner!

In  Bydlo  (cattle),  an  ox  pulls  a  heavy  cart  into  view  before  fading  into  the  distance.    Ravel  created  a  famous  solo  for  the  tuba  repertory.

A  tranquil Promenade  ends  with  hints  of  quiet  but  frenetic  activity.

For  The  Ballet  of  the  Chicks  in  their  shells,  Hartmann  had  sketched  costumes,  which,  shaped  like  eggs,  were  probably  challenging  to  dance  in.

In Samuel  Goldenberg  and  Schmuyl,  Mussorgsky  depicts  two  paintings  of  Polish  Jews,  drawing  on  unfortunate  stereotypes  with  what  is  nonetheless  a  great  compositional  style.    Goldberg  is  imperious  and  unforgiving  –  maybe  reminiscent  of  Shakespeare’s  Shylock.    The  other  is  a  pathetic,  pleading  figure.    It  is  clear  who,  in  Mussorgsky’s  mind,  has  the  last  word!

In  Limoges  –  The  Market  Place,  Mussorgsky’s  manuscript  sketched  the  humorous  dialog  of  gossiping  market-goers:  The  Big  News…runaway  cow…new  porcelain  dentures…  and  Mr.  De  Panta-Pantaléons  obtrusive  nose,  [which]  remains  as  red  as  a  pony!

The  Roman  Catacombs  is  Hartmann’s  watercolor  self-portrait,  standing  with  two  others  in  catacombs  under  Paris.    Shadowy  darkness  is  conveyed  by  ambiguous  harmonies  and  sustained  chords.  The  greatest  detail  in  the  painting  is  the  neatly  stacked  pile  of  human  skulls.

With  the  Dead  in  a  Dead  Language  is  a  eulogic  return  of  the  Promenade  theme,  which  seems  to  reach  some  kind  of  peace  at  the  end.    The  B-major  conclusion,  and  Ravel’s  ascending  harp  chords,  are  reminiscent  of  the  closing  of  Tchaikovsky’s  Romeo  &  Juliet  (1872).  If  there  is  a  programmatic  arc  to  Mussorgsky’s  memorial  suite,  it  is  strongest  here:  the  next  movement  concerns  time.

Hartmann’s  sketch  for  a  Baba  Yaga  clock,  The  Hut  on  Fowl’s  Legs,  is  the  inspiration  for  the  penultimate  movement:  the  terrifying  children’s  tales  about  a  witch  with  a  flying  mortar-and-pestle,  which  she  used  to  pulverize  bones.  Not  only  that,  she  lived  in  a  house  with  giant  chicken-legs!  Mussorgsky  makes  use  of  dissonant  intervals  (the  major  seventh,  and  tritone,  used  in  Russian  folk  music  to  signify  a  villain).    The  ferocious  music  even  evokes  the  tic-tock  of  Hartmann’s  clock.    A  central  Andante  is  a  brief  respite  before  the  chase  is  on  again,  before  a  sudden  transformation:

The  Great  Gate  of  Kiev.  Hartmann  had  submitted  a  design  for  a  massive  city  gate  to  a  competition.    (It  was  in  honor  of  the  Czar’s  lucky  escape  from  his  first  assassination  attempt,  but  was  quietly  shelved.)    A  grand  structure,  with  bells  and  an  onion  dome,  is  evoked  in  Ravel’s  orchestration  by  actual  ringing  bells.  Its  theme  transforms  itself  into  the  Promenade  melody.    Twice,  woodwinds  quietly  turn  to  fragments  of  the  Russian  Orthodox  hymn  As  You  are  Baptized  in  Christ,  before  the  thrilling  conclusion,  a  grand  rendition  of  the  Promenade  theme.

Modest Mussorgsky
Born: March 21, 1839, Karevo, Russia
Died: March 28, 1881, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Categories: Program Notes