This is not the only organ transcription of Pictures. Being originally a keyboard work and with considerable opportunities for musical colour, it makes a splendid showpiece for a large concert organ and certainly provides ample scope for this magnificent new 68-stop instrument. The ''Promenade'' is as much around the organ's sound-boards as it is around the pictures themselves, but it must be said that Keith John's transcription, far from using Mussorgsky's original ideas merely to display the organ, captures the essential character of the music, producing a most credible work in its own right. There is a strong sense of continuity, everything proceeds at an easy pace and it is played with total conviction and enthusiasm. Compare the bright, perky sounds of ''Tuileries'' with the heavy plodding of ''Bydlo''; even an orchestral version can't create such striking musical pictures as these. Dare I confess to preferring this version above all others, including Mussorgsky's original? The recorded sound is luscious. Priory have produced a matchless recording of this instrument.
I can think of nothing which connects Alain and Mussorgsky to produce some logic to this coupling; but then does there need to be? I am content to sit back and enjoy such splendid performances of a piano work which sounds utterly convincing on the organ and an organ work, which began life in piano score and was ultimately intended for orchestra. The powerful rhythms and wide-ranging emotions of the Alain dances come across with extraordinary intensity. This is electrifying stuff.'