Pictures at an Exhibition
(Arranged for Chamber Orchestra)

Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition has always inspired the imagination of composers and conductors: The work, originally a virtuoso piano piece, calls too clearly for the rich colours of a larger instrumental apparatus, an orchestra.

Thus, after Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov had already set a selection of the Pictures for orchestra, Maurice Ravel, at the instigation of Serge Koussevitzki, created the version in which most listeners become familiar with the popular work. Whether in the concert halls of the world or on CD – no one can ignore this masterpiece of tonal colours, and none of the later alternative versions for large orchestra were able to assert themselves against Ravel's congenial orchestration.

The version for an ensemble of twelve musicians is therefore based on two different sources: The foundation is the piano version; in case of doubt (and in some places Ravel deviates from the original), Mussorgsky's original version applies. However, Ravel's version stands alongside it on an equal footing, so to speak, because in various places the great instrumentalist has found such exemplary and definitive tonal solutions that we as listeners have internalised them as the 'original', in a way: How else can the beginning of the Tuileries be imagined than with a woodwind section?

Nevertheless, in many places – due to the limited instrumentation – the necessity (and also the adventure) arises to come up with completely new solutions. This new version, created for the ensemble die taschenphilharmonie (the pocket philharmonic), gives mixed ensembles between chamber music and small orchestra the opportunity to perform Mussorgsky's masterpiece in a colourful and nuanced sound.

On the instrumentation:
Since harmonies are still present in many places but rarely tuned to the modern concert pitches, I have set those bars in which the harmonium plays indispensable parts as small notes, in case an adequate instrument is not available, so that a performance without harmonium, only with a piano, is also possible.

Peter Stangel