Mussorgsky-Gamley ’Great Gate of Kiev’ - Slatkin conducts

In 1991, Leonard Slatkin devised a version of Mussorgsky’s solo piano set “Pictures at an Exhibition“ in which all the ’pictures’ and ’promenades’ were orchestrated by different arrangers. Up until then, the arrangement most often played was Maurice Ravel’s but Slatkin showed that there were many other equally interesting versions to choose from. His selection included orchestrations of the work that had been made by Leopold Stokowski, Sir Henry Wood, Sergei Gorchakov, Leonadis Leonardi, Leo Funtek, Mikhail Tushmalov, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Lucien Cailliet and Lawrence Leonard. Some years later, Slatkin returned to this venture and compiled a completely different set of “Pictures at an Exhibition“ from among the many other versions that also exist. He played this new set in the Royal Albert Hall at the 2004 London Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, of which he was then chief conductor. From that performance we hear the grand finale, the “Great Gate of Kiev,“ in the arrangement for men’s chorus and orchestra