Product Review

Based on the autograph manuscript and earliest editions, editor Nancy Bricard addresses the sources and discrepancies between the various publications of Moussorgsky's most important contribution to piano literature---Pictures at an Exhibition. This well-researched edition describes the close relationship between the composer and Russian artist Victor Hartmann, whose paintings and sketches inspired the creation of this collection of musical works. Bricard offers fascinating insight into the composer's compositional process by including music passages in her footnotes that Moussorgsky had discarded from the autograph. Also discussed are matters of tempo, fingering, pedaling and interpretation, as well as background on the historical, cultural and social environment that influenced the composer's music.