Mussorgsky: Pictures from an Exhibition (orch. Ravel)

Pictures of What?

Beyond the Score
Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

This Beyond the Score presentation examines Ravel’s famous orchestration of Mussorgsky’s mighty piano sequence, Pictures from an Exhibition. We will explore the fascinations and contradictions of a cool and sophisticated 20th-century Frenchman orchestrating a work by a mid-19th-century Russian who was wild and strange and certainly neither cool nor sophisticated. Discover the story behind the cycle and the heartfelt way it memorializes the tragic fate of Mussorgsky’s friend, the artist Viktor Hartmann.

We will also explore the art of orchestration. Learn what actually happens when a composer takes a chord or a tune written for piano and transforms it into music for symphony orchestra.

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Beyond the Score® receives support from the following generous contributors:
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Bruce and Martha Clinton, on behalf of The Clinton Family Fund;
and Walter and Karla Goldschmidt Foundation.