Pictures at an Exhibtion - Modest Mussorgsky, arr. Hindsley
”His desire was to relate his art as closely as possible to life,
especially that of the Russian masses, to nourish it on events and to
employ it as a means for communicating human experience.”
These words, from the indispensable Grove Concise Dictionary of Music,
describe the artistic aims of Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky
(1839-1881). At times a loner and a collaborator, an artist
and a bureaucrat, he emerged from a military upbringing to become a
member of “The Five”, a group of Russian composers dedicated to
promoting distinctly Russian music. He died at age 42 after
losing a lifelong battle with alcoholism. He left behind many
unfinished work which were completed (and somewhat recomposed) by his
friend Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov. His most enduring
contributions to the musical canon include the opera Boris Godunov, the
piano cycle Pictures at
an Exhibition, and the symphonic poem Night on Bald Mountain.
Mussorgsky
on Wikipedia.
Biographical
excerpt from Grove's
Concise Dictrionary of Music.
Dallas
Symphony Orchestra Kids Page about Mussorgsky - colorful,
fun, and informative. Includes an edited recording of the
Ravel version of "Great Gate of Kiev".
Written in 1874,
Pictures at an Exhibition is a program piece that imagines
a person looking a series of paintings at an exhibit in an art gallery.
It is a recreation of a memorial exhibition given in 1873 of
the works of Russian artist Viktor Hartmann, a close friend of
Mussorgsky's who had died unexpectedly 3 years prior at age 39.
Each movement of the suite presents a musical depiction of
one of Hartmann's works. These are often separated by the
"Promenade" theme, which depicts the viewer walking between paintings.
The
Wikipedia article on Pictures
covers all the bases, including mention of the several arrangements
that exist and copies of most of the original pictures that inspired
Mussorgsky. Highly recommended!
This
video features a fantastically expressive conductor doing the
last two movements, "The Hut of Baba Yaga" and "The Great Gate of
Kiev". These two are what we will play in April's concert.
Unforunately the embedding has been disabled, but please
go watch - it's very much worth it!!
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