Modest Mussorgski

Promenade and the old Castle

These are two of the pieces from Mussorgsky's famous Pictures At An Exhibition suite, arranged from the original piano score for clarinet choir. Promenade has a very Russian, hymn-like quality, and depicts the composer wandering around an art gallery and looking at the artwork of Viktor Hartmann, to whom the suite is dedicated. The Old Castle is a melancholy troubadour song, describing an eerie, dilapidated castle. The meandering, chromatic melody conjures up images of exploration around the maze of rooms and corridors inside.