Promenade

Because the original piano version of Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition often feels simultaneously rather austere while reaching toward something larger than itself, it’s a piece that has always seemed particularly well-suited to reimagining for larger forces. Since appearing in 1874 it has accordingly been orchestrated many times, most famously of course by Maurice Ravel, with other well-known interpretations by the conductor Leopold Stokowski and a popular rock version by the prog-rock band Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. My own contribution to this history, however, is not precisely an orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition. Instead, as my title suggests, Promenade only approaches the five interstitials depicting strolling between artworks (Ravel omitted one). Without fundamentally rewriting them, I have reimagined each promenade, utilizing a variety of orchestration techniques to bring out contrasting
musical colors from each like facets on a gemstone. The ensemble is that of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, a sort of miniature orchestra, and the five brief movements may be played together as a set or placed throughout a concert as interludes.