Pictures at an Exhibition

Advantages: Contrasting programme music unified by a recurring theme
Disadvantages: None

...Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, born in 1839, was one of a group of Russian composers known as The Five, who were dedicated to producing a distinctive Russian style of music. Among Mussorgsky’s closest friends was the archietect and painter, Victor Hartmann. Hartmann died suddenly at the age of only 39. Mussorgsky was devasted by the news of his death. The following year of 1874, he attended an exhibition of his friend’s work. Walking around the exhibition, stopping and gazing at each of the pictures was to inspire Mussorgsky to compose an evocative and masterful tribute to his friend and his aristry. Mussorgsky composed Pictures at Exhibtition as a cycle of Piano pieces illustrating ten of Hartmann’s pictures linked by a recurring theme to show the viewer moving from one painting to another. It was later arranged for the orchestra... Read review

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Advantages: A great recording of popular and familiar works with excellent sound and performance values
Disadvantages: Absolutely none whatsoever

...Romanticism and forging a daringly original style, very raw and often dissonant. Also his vocal and operatic works employ a radical declamatory style based on everyday speech patterns. Mussorgsky was never a truly prolific composer. He wrote three song cycles, a set of musical pictures for piano called Pictures at an Exhibition, two operas, Boris Godunov and the unfinished Khovanshchina, the incomplete play Sorochintsy Fair and the orchestral fantasia St.John's Night on the Bare Mountain for the play The Witch. In 1867 he left the civil service, meaning to earn a living as teacher and accompanist, but took a position in the government's Forestry Department the following year due to financial difficulties. His continuing lapses into alcoholism, drawn from his mixing with wild intellectuals, finally caused his health to deteriorate and forced him... Read review

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Advantages: A true "rock" album with soaring guitar rifts and of course Bono's soulful lyrics
Disadvantages: Some of the songs are . . . well . . . can you say "rubbish bin-worthy?"

...of an art exhibit when the 40-something Bono was confronted with a picture of himself at 20. "What would you tell that young man in the picture?" someone asked him. After a moment, Bono said, "You're right." "City of Blinding Lights" is what else the 40-something would say to the 20-year-old. "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" was written for Bono's dad, who died a couple of years ago, but it has become a reminder to Bono himself that he can't make it without his fellow band-mates (It was fitting that this song, in which Edge sings the chorus, was rewarded with the best song by a duo at the Grammys). "One Step Closer to Knowing" was also written for Bono's dad, and it was born out of a conversation between Bono and Oasis' Noel Gallagher. Some people have refered to it as "trudging up the dark side of 'One Tree Hill... Read review

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