A French critic wrote about Emil Naoumoff's orchestration of "Pictures at an Exhibition": "When he took hold of this mythical work, Naoumoff forgot the arrangements of a Ravel or an Ashkenazy and transformed it triumphantly into a true piano concerto [...]. A work whose success is easily explained by its color, panache, radiance, and supreme fidelity to the spirit of the original, and which may well prompt other pianists to adopt it into their repertoires!" (from Pierre Petit's article "Du Panache" which appeared in "Le Figaro") In Naoumoff's composition "Meditation", the solo instrument alternates between being narrator and commentator.
