Pictures
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Pictures at an Exhibition was composed originally for piano. The work did not appear in print until 1886* (five years after the composer's death), when an edition by the composer's great friend Nikolay Rimski-Korsakov was published by the St. Petersburg firm V. Bessel & Co. (plate 1560). This first publication was not a completely accurate representation of Mussorgsky's score, but presented a revised text that introduced a few editorial changes, along with a few errors and misreadings. In contrast to the drastic revisions he made to Boris Godunov, Rimsky's editorial changes to this work were relatively minor - despite some extravagant claims to the contrary by the editors of subsequent scores issued by Western publishers. [The Wikipedia article linked below repeats this widespread mis-characterization of Rimsky's editorial changes.] The most significant change can be found in the Bydlomovement, where Mussorgsky's original dynamic scheme - starting with a fortissimo - was replaced with one of Rimsky's own invention starting withpianissimo. This, along with the other few changes, was repeated in a number of subsequent editions and orchestrations, including the very famous one prepared in 1922 by Maurice Ravel. Only in 1931, more than half a century after the work's composition, was Pictures at an Exhibition published in a scholarly edition in agreement with the composer's manuscript. *The censor's approval date on page 2 of the Bessel score is 11 September 1886. However, the date of the catalogue listings on the inside back over is 19 January 1887. |
| Movements/Sections | 16 (including Promenades)
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ELP | Caballero | Delta | Howarth | Ravell | Leonard | Ashkenazy | Tomita | Gorchakov | Chicago | Bydlo (Tuba) | Old Castle
