Modest Mussorgski

Pictures at an Exhibition

A transcription justifies itself only by forgetting that it is a transcription and by incorporating the 'new' instrument into the work, as it were, Jean Guillou writes in the preface to this edition.Especially transcribing a work for organ which was originally written for piano possesses a certain risk. Such a transcription should not sound like a piano score played on the organ. Rather, the specific possibilities offered by the organ have to be considered. That is why typically pianistic passages have to be rewritten to get an organistic character. Jean Guillou has masterfully succeeded in turning this great piano and orchestral work into a work for organ.