Promenade (from Pictures at an Exhibition) - Mussorgsky

Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881) composed the 'Pictures at an Exhibition' in 1874 as a suite of ten piano pieces. The suite is generally acknowledged to be Mussorgsky's greatest solo piano composition, and has become a showpiece for virtuoso pianists. It has also become known through various orchestrations and arrangements produced by other musicians and, with Ravel's arrangement being the most recorded and performed. The 'Promenade' is the very beginning and in this piece Mussorgsky depicts himself roving through the exhibition, now leisure, now briskly in order to come to a picture that had attrackted his attention.