Toscanini regarded this orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition as a genuine treatise on instrumentation, on a par with that of Berlioz: scored for the same instrumental forces as La Valse, Ravel’s version quickly established itself ahead of all the many competing orchestrations of Mussorgsky’s piano suite! In François-Xavier Roth’s view, La Valse and the Pictures together represent the peak of the composer’s output for the symphony orchestra of his time – that is to say, as the musicians of Les Siècles reconstruct it for us today. What a joy to get back to the original colours of this music!
1Tableaux d’une exposition: Promenade I (Orch. Maurice Ravel) (Live)1:33
2Tableaux d’une exposition: 1. Gnomus (Orch. Maurice Ravel) (Live)2:28
3Tableaux d’une exposition: Promenade II (Orch. Maurice Ravel) (Live)0:58
4Tableaux d’une exposition: 2. Il vecchio castello (Orch. Maurice Ravel) (Live)4:19
5Tableaux d’une exposition: Promenade III (Orch. Maurice Ravel) (Live)0:32
6Tableaux d’une exposition: 3. Tuileries [Dispute d’enfants après jeux] (Orch. Maurice Ravel) (Live)1:09
7Tableaux d’une exposition: 4. Byd?o (Orch. Maurice Ravel) (Live)3:07
8Tableaux d’une exposition: Promenade IV (Orch. Maurice Ravel) (Live)0:40
9Tableaux d’une exposition: 5. Ballet des poussins dans leurs coques (Orch. Maurice Ravel) (Live)1:16
10Tableaux d’une exposition: 6. Samuel Goldenberg et Schmuÿle (Orch. Maurice Ravel) (Live)2:16
11Tableaux d’une exposition: 7. Limoge, le Marché [la grande nouvelle] (Orch. Maurice Ravel) (Live)1:19
12Tableaux d’une exposition: 8. Catacombæ [Sepulcrum Romanum] (Orch. Maurice Ravel) (Live)1:45
13Tableaux d’une exposition: Cum mortuis in lingua mortua (Orch. Maurice Ravel) (Live)1:53
14Tableaux d’une exposition: 9. La Cabane sur des pattes de poule. Baba-Yaga (Orch. Maurice Ravel) (Live)3:21
15Tableaux d’une exposition: 10. La Grande Porte de Kiev (Orch. Maurice Ravel) (Live)5:05
16La Valse, poème chorégraphique, M. 72 (Live)12:17