Fritz Reiner - Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition/ Moussorgsky (180g 2LP 45RPM)

Another sonic and musical blockbuster from the unbeatable combo of Reiner and RCA (and Mohr & Layton). Recorded in 1957 at Chicago's Orchestra Hall; the original analog session tapes were used in mastering for LPs and SACDS. Mussorgsky's inspiration for Pictures was the death of his dear friend, the architect and visual artist Victor Hartman. Having died at age 39, Hartman had not yet had the opportunity to realize any of his architectural visions, and Mussorgsky was angered that his friend would have no legacy. The Architects' Society arranged an exhibition of some of Hartman's sketches \u2014 some of architecture, others of characters or scenes from everyday life. The tribute was enough to give Mussorgsky ideas for his composition, but not enough to give Hartman any lasting place in history. Today, of all of the sketches that were captured in music, only six can be positively identified.\n\nThe piece is known today primarily through the orchestral version created by Maurice Ravv