A Night at the Symphony
My wife and I got a babysitter in order to go see the Cincinnati Symphony last night. We got to see my favorite work, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. I think I've only seen it live one other time. Originally composed for the piano alone, it has been orchestrated several times, ranging from Ravel (the version performed last night) to Emerson, Lake and Palmer (the recording I first encountered).
The Ravel version really uses the whole orchestra, especially the wind section. Our seats were high and off to the side--I think I was actually over the stage, so we got to see a lot of what was going on. Quite impressive. My understanding is that the CSO is gearing up to make a recording of this, so they were definitely on their game.
Pictures at an Exhibition was written to commemorate a friend of Mussorgsky's, an architect by the name of Hartmann. He died at the age of 39, and Mussorgsky was crushed. A mutual friend tried to console Mussorgsky by holding an exhibition of Hartmann's works. Mussorgsky was inspired to write a piece of ten movements; each movement was about a different work of Hartmann. Joined by a promenade, it suggested going through such an exhibit (though only three of the works on the original exhibit are represented).
My favorite movement is the final one, the "Great Gate of Kiev."
Comments
Oooh, Pictures is fantastic. The Phoenix Symphony is going to be doing it later this season and I need to get tix, thanks for the reminder!
Glad you enjoyed a night out at the Symphony!
"Great Gate of Kiev" is one of my favorite things ever. We saw Leonard Slatkin with the St. Louis Symphony perform Pictures several years ago. Fantastic.