Keith Chapman – Pictures At an Exhibition (Modest Moussorgsky) – The Wanamaker Grand Court Organ

Keith Chapman – Pictures At an Exhibition (Modest Moussorgsky)
PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION is one of the most popular musical works of nineteenth century Russia. The opus consists of a recurring Promenade theme symbolic of Moussorgsky’s own walking pace through the gallery of the St. Petersburg Architectural Society and ten pictures based on ten groups of paintings and drawings of Victor Alexandrovich Hartmann. Moussorgsky and Hartmann were close friends and admirers of each other’s works and Moussorgsky himself owned several of the drawings that were to be exhibited at St. Petersburg. When Hartmann died the year before the exhibition Moussorgsky was inspired to write this work as a memorial to his friend. Originally the work was written for piano, but it has achieved most of its fame through orchestral transcriptions, most notably that of Maurice Ravel. This is ample justification for an organ transcription especially one that is for an organ that can so completely rival the tonal resources of the orchestra.

00:00 Promenade
01:38 Gnomus
05:29 Promenade
06:24 Il Vecchio Castello
10:31 Promenade
11:06 The Tuileries
12:09 Bydlo
14:18 Promenade
15:05 Ballett of the unhatched chickens
16:22 Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle
18:39 Promenade
20:15 The market place of Limoges
21:44 Catacombae (Sepulchrum Romanum - Con mortuis in lingua mortua)
25:47 Baba Yaga
29:04 The great gate of Kiev

Stentorian SC 1710
Released in 1975

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