An art exhibition in honor of his friend, the painter Victor Hartmann, inspired Mussorgsky to compose his piano cycle in 1874, the idea of which is as simple as it is obvious: a kind of 'first-person narrator' wanders through the gallery and looks at ten paintings in great detail. Maurice Ravel orchestrated them for orchestra in 1922. Giulini's performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is widely regarded as a reference recording. Prokofiev wrote his first symphony in the middle of the First World War. In sound and form, it differs from other works by the composer. No gigantic late romantic orchestra, no performance time of an hour, but a classical orchestra, and only fifteen minutes are needed for his 'Symphony No. 1', which was written in 1916/17.