Modest Mussorgsky’s piano suite “Pictures at an Exhibition”, with its contrasting and characterful depictions of paintings by Mussorgsky’s friend Viktor Hartman, was already a virtuoso favorite among pianists – and had been orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov – when Russian conductor Serge Koussevitzky approached Maurice Ravel just after World War I about creating a new orchestration of the work. The result became one of the most popular orchestral showpieces of the twentieth century.
Sir Charles Mackerras’s recording of the Ravel orchestration of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” was a highly praised sonic spectacular for Vanguard Records in the 1970s. Mackerras, whose reputation has only continued to grow in the decade since his death, made several of Vanguard’s most important releases in repertoire ranging from Baroque to the twentieth century.
For the first time, this audiophile gem from the Vanguard Classics catalogue is available for streaming and download in 192k 24-bit high definition sound!
