Modest Mussorgsky / Maurice Ravel

The orchestration combines Mussorgsky's bold harmonic language and vivid pictorial imagination with Ravel's unmatched gift for instrumental color. Each 'picture' becomes a showcase of orchestral technique: the lowing of the ox-cart in tubas and bass, the chirping of chicks in woodwind trills, the tolling of the Great Gate of Kiev in the full brass choir. It's a masterclass in how orchestration can illuminate and transform.

Ravel took the commission from conductor Serge Koussevitzky, who wanted to showcase the piece with the Boston Symphony. Ravel's deep sympathy for Mussorgsky's music — he had studied the Russian's harmonic language carefully — ensured the orchestration enhanced rather than 'corrected' the original. Other orchestrations exist (by Stokowski, Ashkenazy, and others) but Ravel's remains definitive.

The piece was orchestrated in 1922 and premiered by Koussevitzky in Paris. It quickly became one of the most popular works in the orchestral repertoire and has remained so for a century. It's now programmed more frequently than any other Ravel orchestral work and more often than most performances of Mussorgsky's piano original.

Ravel deliberately preserved Mussorgsky's harmonic 'roughness' in his orchestration — the bare fifths, the modal harmonies, the unconventional progressions that Rimsky-Korsakov had smoothed away in other Mussorgsky works. Ravel understood that these were features, not flaws, and his orchestration honors the original's radical character while adding kaleidoscopic color.

The original piano suite was written by Mussorgsky in 1874 as a memorial to his friend, the artist Viktor Hartmann. The 'pictures' were actual artworks by Hartmann — most of which are now lost. So the music is essentially all that remains of the exhibition that inspired it.

This is one of the ten most frequently performed orchestral works worldwide. Every major orchestra programs it regularly, and it's a guaranteed audience-pleaser. It often anchors the second half of concert programs and is a favorite for season finales. Comparing the Ravel orchestration with Mussorgsky's piano original (sometimes programmed side by side) makes for a fascinating concert experience.