These are two of the pieces from Mussorgsky's famous Pictures At An Exhibition suite, arranged from the original piano score for clarinet choir. Promenade has a very Russian, hymn-like quality, and depicts the composer wandering around an art gallery and looking at the artwork of Viktor Hartmann, to whom the suite is dedicated. The Old Castle is a melancholy troubadour song, describing an eerie, dilapidated castle. The meandering, chromatic melody conjures up images of exploration around the maze of rooms and corridors inside.
