---
product_id: 58141985
title: "Pictures At An Exhibition"
brand: "isao tomita"
price: "€ 31.85"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.it/products/58141985-pictures-at-an-exhibition
store_origin: IT
region: Italy
---

# Pictures At An Exhibition

**Brand:** isao tomita
**Price:** € 31.85
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Pictures At An Exhibition by isao tomita
- **How much does it cost?** € 31.85 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.it](https://www.desertcart.it/products/58141985-pictures-at-an-exhibition)

## Best For

- isao tomita enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted isao tomita brand quality
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## Description

Pictures At An Exhibition

## Images

![Pictures At An Exhibition - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51sPKDslCKL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Five Stars
  

*by N***N on Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2017*

Great CD

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    a feast for the ear, returning the original impact of Mussorgsky's Pictures
  

*by D***E on Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2011*

Although many others (including Stokowski) had tried their hand at it, Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is so universally famous and popular that you'd easily think the composition had been originally written as an orchestral piece by a composer called Mussorgsky-Ravel (a cousin of Rimsky-Korsakov, no doubt).But of course it ain't so. Pictures at an Exhibition are first a piano cycle composed by Mussorgsky in 1874, a series of paintings in music really, so colorful and evocative that it is difficult to resist the urge of adding orchestral colors to them, as Ravel did (but he wasn't the first) in 1922, on a commission from conductor Serge Koussevitzky.All that to say that Tomita's arrangement is as legitimate as anybody's. In fact, it is even more, because it is so good, fun and even funny, entertaining, inventive to the point of being outlandish.One of the nice aspects of Tomita's arrangement is that, unlike many of the orchestrations that were made after 1922, it is entirely independent of Ravel's. The synthesized sounds he uses are sometimes derived from acoustic instruments (the quasi harpsichord recurs, various bell-like sounds, one sound in The Old Castle that I can only describe as "whistling" - not flute), sometimes purely electronic, but more often they mix timbres to the point of making any single instrument unrecognizable (is it a quasi balalaïka that I hear at the begining of The Old Castle?). He uses to the full the stereo separation.Tomita also has a great sense of humor in his choice of timbres: try the quasi-flexatone at the beginning of gnomus, or the spooky quasi-ondes martenot right after, reminiscent of the cheap horror movies from the Hammer films, or the Ballet of the Chicks in their Shells - that's exactly what you hear, and it's hilarious. The use of vocal chorus, as in the first Promenade, sometimes gives the music a sci-fi aspect - not that it is out-of-sync with the whole project. There is also the use of a humming, basso solo voice - very Japanese, if I rely on my culture of Japanese films - in a number of pieces (The Old Castle, Bydlo, Catacombs) that is very intriguing.This is an almost exclusive listener of classical music writing, not someone coming from pop music. I'm not sure listeners grown on Mussorgsky's original cycle and Ravel's orchestration won't be shocked by this - not those with open ears, but not all listeners of classical music have open ears, and some like to rest on their old listening habits and not be bullied out of them. But the value of Tomita's arrangement is precisely that it bullies the classical music listener out of his old listening habits, and return something of the original impact of Mussorgky's Pictures, which has become somewhat dulled by, precisely, those very listening habits (the same is true with, say, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, and even Beethoven's 5th Symphony - hey, what a loss that Tomita didn't do an arrangement of the latter, and of the complete Rite - there is an excerpt in the album 
  
Tomita: Live At Linz 1984: The Mind of the Universe







  
  
    ). Tomita's Pictures are a feast for the ear, sometimes a gaudy one, as was for the eye, presumably, the  Viktor Hartmann exhibition that gave Mussorgsky the incentive to compose his cycle.The only drawback then is the short, LP-derived TT of 37 minutes. Hey, with such entertaining stuff, you want more. You will find this CD cheaper under its other entries: 
  
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition - Tomita







  
  
    ,
  
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition







  
  
    . They are the Western editions, not, as here, a more recent Japanese remastering. The sonics were already excellent. I don't know how the new one compares. Now it's your choice if you want to shell out so many bucks for the potential of marginal-to-significant hi-fi improvement. Not me: I'd rather buy the Tomita CDs I'm still missing, for as cheap as I can find them.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    a feast for the ear, returning the original impact of Mussorgsky's Pictures
  

*by D***E on Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2011*

Although many others (including Stokowski) had tried their hand at it, Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is so universally famous and popular that you'd easily think the composition had been originally written as an orchestral piece by a composer called Mussorgsky-Ravel (a cousin of Rimsky-Korsakov, no doubt).But of course it ain't so. Pictures at an Exhibition are first a piano cycle composed by Mussorgsky in 1874, a series of paintings in music really, so colorful and evocative that it is difficult to resist the urge of adding orchestral colors to them, as Ravel did (but he wasn't the first) in 1922, on a commission from conductor Serge Koussevitzky.All that to say that Tomita's arrangement is as legitimate as anybody's. In fact, it is even more, because it is so good, fun and even funny, entertaining, inventive to the point of being outlandish.One of the nice aspects of Tomita's arrangement is that, unlike many of the orchestrations that were made after 1922, it is entirely independent of Ravel's. The synthesized sounds he uses are sometimes derived from acoustic instruments (the quasi harpsichord recurs, various bell-like sounds, one sound in The Old Castle that I can only describe as "whistling" - not flute), sometimes purely electronic, but more often they mix timbres to the point of making any single instrument unrecognizable (is it a quasi balalaïka that I hear at the begining of The Old Castle?). He uses to the full the stereo separation.Tomita also has a great sense of humor in his choice of timbres: try the quasi-flexatone at the beginning of gnomus, or the spooky quasi-ondes martenot right after, reminiscent of the cheap horror movies from the Hammer films, or the Ballet of the Chicks in their Shells - that's exactly what you hear, and it's hilarious. The use of vocal chorus, as in the first Promenade, sometimes gives the music a sci-fi aspect - not that it is out-of-sync with the whole project. There is also the use of a humming, basso solo voice - very Japanese, if I rely on my culture of Japanese films - in a number of pieces (The Old Castle, Bydlo, Catacombs) that is very intriguing.This is an almost exclusive listener of classical music writing, not someone coming from pop music. I'm not sure listeners grown on Mussorgsky's original cycle and Ravel's orchestration won't be shocked by this - not those with open ears, but not all listeners of classical music have open ears, and some like to rest on their old listening habits and not be bullied out of them. But the value of Tomita's arrangement is precisely that it bullies the classical music listener out of his old listening habits, and return something of the original impact of Mussorgky's Pictures, which has become somewhat dulled by, precisely, those very listening habits (the same is true with, say, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, and even Beethoven's 5th Symphony - hey, what a loss that Tomita didn't do an arrangement of the latter, and of the complete Rite - there is an excerpt in the album 
  
Tomita: Live At Linz 1984: The Mind of the Universe







  
  
    ). Tomita's Pictures are a feast for the ear, sometimes a gaudy one, as was for the eye, presumably, the  Viktor Hartmann exhibition that gave Mussorgsky the incentive to compose his cycle.The only drawback then is the short, LP-derived TT of 37 minutes. Hey, with such entertaining stuff, you want more. You will find this CD cheaper under its other entries: 
  
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition - Tomita







  
  
    ,
  
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition







  
  
    . They are the Western editions, not, as here, a more recent Japanese remastering. The sonics were already excellent. I don't know how the new one compares. Now it's your choice if you want to shell out so many bucks for the potential of marginal-to-significant hi-fi improvement. Not me: I'd rather buy the Tomita CDs I'm still missing, for as cheap as I can find them.

---

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---

*Product available on Desertcart Italy*
*Store origin: IT*
*Last updated: 2026-03-20*