Monday, November 5, 2012

Pictures at an Exhibition - Orchestrations & Arrangements for Other Forces

"Pictures at an Exhibition is a suite in ten movements composed for piano by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky in 1874. The suite is Mussorgsky's most famous piano composition, and has become a showpiece for virtuoso pianists. It has become further known through various orchestrations and arrangements produced by other musicians and composers, with Maurice Ravel's arrangement being the most recorded and performed." - Wikipedia


This playlist consists of over 30 arrangements of Pictures, including over a dozen orchestrations, from Henry Wood, Leo Funtek, Maurice Ravel, Lucien Cailliet, Leopold Stokowski, Sergei Gorchakov (the RCA recording by Rickenbacher comes with colorful narrations), Lawrence Leonard (for piano and orchestra), Vladimir Ashkenazy (sounds much more Russian than Ravel's), Emile Naoumoff (for piano and orchestra), Leonard Slatkin (compendium version), Peter Breiner (for large orchestra). In addition, there's also arrangements for brass ensemble, piano trio, organ, trombone and piano, accordion, two accordions, cello and bass ensemble, wind orchestra, bassoon ensemble, piano and percussion, marimba duo... and yes, rock bands (ELP and metal band Mekong Delta). For solo piano, I included Kissin's performance of the original, plus Horowitz and Moiseiwitsch's own revised versions.

Get this collection in one playlist: Pictures at an Exhibition - Orchestrations & Arrangements for Other Forces (505 track, total time: 20 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. For complete list of arrangements, see Wikipedia.

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