Pictures at an Exhibition - Mussorgsky, arr Keith John. David Briggs at St John the Divine, New York

‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ (1874) - Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881), arr. by Keith John - performed by David Briggs at the Cathedral of St John the Divine, New York

For the past five and a half years we have been indebted to the Walker Technical Company for the use of their outstanding instrument, while our famous 1953 Aeolian-Skinner organ (Opus 150A) has been out for its post-2019 fire cleaning and restoration. It sounds absolutely fantastic in the cavernous acoustic of St John the Divine and it has been a joy to rehearse, accompany, perform and record on it.

For my last concert on the instrument I chose Modest Muggorsky’s iconic ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ which, in this fantastic arrangement made by Keith John, allows the performer to explore virtually every aspect of the instrument’s color and dynamic resource. Originally a piano suite in ten movements, plus a recurring and varied Promenade theme, written in 1874 by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky, ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ is a musical depiction of a tour of an exhibition of works by architect and painter Viktor Hartmann put on at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, following his sudden death in the previous year. Each movement of the suite is based on an individual work, some of which are lost.

The composition has become a showpiece for virtuoso pianists, and became widely known from orchestrations and arrangements produced by other composers and contemporary musicians, with Maurice Ravel's 1922 adaptation for orchestra being the most recorded and performed. I have enjoyed performing the arrangement, by former Gloucester Cathedral Chorister Keith John, for well-over twenty years. If you find yourself in New York on Sunday 13th October at 5pm do come and hear it live in the post-Evensong recital at St John the Divine!