Mussorgsky Pictures at an exhibition

In 1874 and after an exhibition to honor the painter (and also his friend) Viktor Hartmann, Mussorgsky composed this “suite” for piano in 6 weeks.
Mussorgsky based his musical material on drawings and watercolours by Hartmann, who produced them mostly during the artist's travels abroad. There were around 400 paintings but Mossorgsky used 10 of them.

The following video correspond with the live recording made in June 2012 in the Master Recital, Haitinkzaal of Amsterdam, performed by Guillermo Simón.

 Pictures at an exhibition                     Modest Mussorgsky

 The cycle written in 1874 was inspired by a posthumous exhibition of 400 drawings and paintings by        
 Victor Hartmann. Mussorgsky created the composition based on 10 of those paintings.

 Promenade (Depicts the composer walking from picture to picture)

 I. The Gnome. (Tiny gnome clumsily waddling on bow legs)
 Promenade

 II. The Old Castle. (A troubadour singing beneath the old castle walls)
 Promenade

 III. Tuileries. (Children quarreling after play in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris)

 IV. Bydlo. (Lumbering Polish ox-cart with huge wooden wheels sloshing through muddy country   
 roads)
 Promenade

 V. Ballet Of The Chickens In Their Shells. (Little chicks fighting to get out of their shells)

 VI. Samuel Goldenberg Et Schmuyle. (Two Polish Jews. The One Rich, the Other Poor)
 Promenade

 VII. Limoges, Le marché. (French women arguing and gossiping in the French market)

 VIII. Catacombs. (The interior of the Paris catacombs, full of skulls, contemplated by the light of a  lantern). Con Mortuis in Lingua Mortua

 IX. The Hut On Fowl's Legs. (Baba Yaga is a witch from Russian fairy tales, who lives in a hut which stands on chicken feet. She eats human bones and flies through the air.
 X. The Great Gate Of Kiev. A design for an entrance gate to the city of Kiev, in the massive style of  ancient Russia and surmounted by a cupola with bells in the shape of Slavonic helmet.