Pictures at an Exhibition

Alain Altinoglu conducts a programme of Russian music, rich in melody and full of storytelling.

Regrettably unfinished before his death in 1881, Mussorgsky based his comedic opera Sorochintsy Fair on Nikolai Gogol's story of young love. Inspired by impressions of Ukranian village life, it is a tale brimming with folk touches, colourful characterisation and superstition. Simon Trpčeski joins the Orchestra as the soloist for Rachmaninov’s stormy, passionate Piano Concerto No 2, a dialogue between piano and orchestra written as the composer was emerging from a period of depression.

Closing the concert, Pictures at an Exhibition follows a visitor – Mussorgsky – walking through an art gallery. The strident melodies, irregular rhythms and Ravel’s orchestration underline the mood of each painting he observes, from the woodwind chirpy chicks through to the reverberant brass in the catacombs, the percussive terror of the witch and the blazing brass and pealing carillons of the finale.

NB Change of Programme 

Please note that, at the request of the conductor, Mussorgsky’s prelude to Sorochintsy Fair will now be performed as the opening work in the programme in place of Kodály’s suite from Háry János.

Posted Wednesday 17 July 2019