Modest Mussorgski

Pictures at an Exibition (excerpts)

Mikhail Tushmalov (1861-1896), a Russian Georgian whose career eventually led to posts in Warsaw and Tiflis (Tbilisi) conducting opera, was a student of Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov and is most widely discussed today as being the first person to prepare an orchestral version of Modest Mussorgsky's PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION. While Rimsky-Korsakov had completed the performing edition for solo piano of his friend Mussorgsky's work, he asked Tushmalov to orchestrate the work for a Rimsky-Korsakov conducted performance in Saint Petersburg on November 30, 1891. Tushmalov scored only the first of the "Promenades" and omitted three of the PICTURES: "Gnomus," "Tuileries," and "Bydlo." And according to a 193 letter from composer Alexander Glazunov, Rimsky-Korsakov also re-orchestrated "The Marketplace at Limoges," the middle section of "The Hut on Fowl's Legs," and the bells in "The Great Gate of Kiev" after discovering issues following the first rehearsal. While among the least complete of the orchestratations, the score retains a dark and restrained quality, causing some to claim that it is more authentically "Russian" than the more virtuosic adaptation by Ravel. Instrumentation in set: 2+Picc.2+EH.2+BCl.2: 4.2.3.1: Timp.Perc(5): Hp.Pno: Str (9-8-7-6-5 in set).