Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition; Prokofiev: Toccata

Mussorgsky's musical tribute to the painter and architect Viktor Hartmann has become his most familiar work, and this recording presents the original piano version of Pictures at an Exhibition. It is an extraordinary work, combining intense demands for virtuoso technique with an inexorable dramatic momentum. Although Prokofiev's Ten Pieces from Romeo and Juliet may seem at first glance to be merely a medley gleaned from the more famous ballet, in actuality the composer published the set independently and it was first performed the year before the finished ballet, perhaps by way of an advertisement for the more challenging (financially, at least) work to follow. Also included here is Prokofiev's Toccata, written in 1912 while he was at the St Petersburg Conservatoire. This program of Russian piano music is played by the renowned virtuoso Nikolai Demidenko.