Tune in Today: A Modest Series of ‘Pictures’

Modest Mussorgsky’s musical stroll through an art exhibit honored his friend, an artist who had died too young.

(Right) “Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks. (Left) “The hut of Baba-Yaga on hen's legs.” Two of the extant pictures by Russian artist and designer Viktor Hartmann. Modest Mussorgsky based his composition “Pictures at an Exhibition” upon 10 of the pictures, some now lost. Public Domain

Can the expressive content of one art form be successfully transferred to another art form? Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881) evidently thought so. When the Russian composer viewed a retrospective exhibition of works by a late artist friend, he turned it into a set of 10 piano impressions of specific paintings, interspersed with variations on a theme he called “Promenade." All in all, it was a musical picture of walking from one gallery to another.

He called the suite, “Pictures at an Exhibition.” A unique contribution to the piano repertoire, it’s unlike anything else ever composed for the piano. A piano prodigy when young, Mussorgsky didn’t pursue the life of a performing musician. He instead dedicated his life solely to composition, often having to support himself as a government employee.