<P> The suite is Mussorgsky's most famous piano composition and has become a showpiece for virtuoso pianists . It has become further known through various orchestrations and arrangements produced by other musicians and composers, with Maurice Ravel's arrangement being by far the most recorded and performed . </P> <P> It was probably in 1868 that Mussorgsky first met artist, architect, and designer Viktor Hartmann, not long after the latter's return to Russia from abroad . Both men were devoted to the cause of an intrinsically Russian art and quickly became friends . They likely met in the home of the influential critic Vladimir Stasov, who followed both of their careers with interest . According to Stasov's testimony, in 1868, Hartmann gave Mussorgsky two of the pictures that later formed the basis of Pictures at an Exhibition . In 1870, Mussorgsky dedicated the second song ("In the Corner") of the cycle The Nursery to Hartmann . Stasov remarked that Hartmann loved Mussorgsky's compositions, and particularly liked the "Scene by the Fountain" in his opera Boris Godunov . Mussorgsky abandoned the scene in his original 1869 version, but at the requests of Stasov and Hartmann, he reworked it for Act 3 in his revision of 1872 . </P> <P> The years 1873--74 are associated with the staging of Boris Godunov, the zenith of Mussorgsky's career as a composer--at least from the standpoint of public acclaim . Mussorgsky's distant relative, friend, and roommate during this period, Arseniy Golenishchev - Kutuzov, describing the January 1874 premiere of the opera, remarked: "During the winter, there were, I think, nine performances, and each time the theatre was sold out, each time the public tumultuously called for Mussorgsky ." The composer's triumph was overshadowed, however, by the critical drubbing he received in the press . Other circumstances conspired to dampen Mussorgsky's spirits . The disintegration of The Mighty Handful and their failure to understand his artistic goals contributed to the isolation he experienced as an outsider in Saint Petersburg's musical establishment . Golenishchev - Kutuzov wrote: "(The Mighty Handful's) banner was held by Mussorgsky alone; all the other members had left it and pursued his own path ..." </P> <P> Hartmann's sudden death on 4 August 1873 from an aneurysm shook Mussorgsky along with others in Russia's art world . The loss of the artist, aged only 39, plunged the composer into deep despair . Stasov helped to organize a memorial exhibition of over 400 Hartmann works in the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg in February and March 1874 . Mussorgsky lent to the exhibition the two pictures Hartmann had given him, and viewed the show in person . Later in June, two thirds of the way through the composition of the cycle of subjectively pessimistic songs Without Sun, Mussorgsky was inspired to compose Pictures at an Exhibition, quickly completing the score in twenty days (2--22 June 1874). In a letter to Stasov (see photo, right), probably written on 12 June 1874, he describes his progress: </P>

What is the genre of pictures at an exhibition