MODEST MUSORGSKY (1839-1881), orch. MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937)
Pictures at an Exhibition (1867, rev. 1872, 1874)
For someone who struggled with alcohol and who was little respected even by his friends (Vladimir Stasov and Mily Balakirev agreed “Musorgsky is almost an idiot”), Modest Musorgsky left at least three masterpieces that have become revered parts of the symphonic and operatic repertoire: the tone poem Night on Bald Mountain (familiar from Walt Disney’s “Fantasia”), the opera Boris Godunov, and one of the most popular orchestral showpieces, Pictures at an Exhibition. The latter began as a virtuoso piano suite, written a few months after the death of the composer’s dear friend, artist and architect Viktor Hartmann. It was Hartmann whose drawings inspired the composition. And as happened to other Musorgsky works, fellow composers saw fit to “improve” or orchestrate them. And so it was with Pictures, best known in Maurice Ravel’s glittering, brilliant orchestration. (Ravel once said “For me, orchestration is more play than work.”) Pictures is the original gallery crawl: the music depicts the viewer’s musical encounter with each of the pictures…ten in all, plus “traveling music” in-between. Special highlights include the opening “Promenade,” when the composer strides into the exhibition; the “Ballet of the Chicks in their Shells” (a costume design for a ballet; listen for the little hatching chicks as they peck their way out of their shells); the eerie Parisian “Catacombs”; and the magnificent pealing of bells in the grand finale, “The Great Gate of Kiev.”

Sir Andrew Davis has served as music director and principal conductor of Lyric Opera of Chicago since 2000. He is the conductor laureate of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (having previously served as principal conductor) and of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (having served as its chief conductor), and is the former music director of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Born in 1944 in Hertfordshire, England, Sir Andrew studied at King’s College, Cambridge, where he was an organ scholar before taking up the baton. His diverse repertoire ranges from the Baroque to contemporary, and his conducting credits span the symphonic, operatic, and choral worlds. He is a great proponent of 20th-century works including those of Janaček, Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, Elgar, Michael Tippett, and Britten.

In the 2009–10 season Sir Andrew conducts productions of Puccini’s Tosca, Gounod’s Faust, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, and Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust at Lyric Opera of Chicago and Britten’s Albert Herring at Santa Fe Opera. He also leads the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, and Philadelphia Orchestra, and other ensembles. He is returning to the BBC Symphony Orchestra at The BBC Proms and in London, and to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Sir Andrew Davis is also a prolific recording artist. He has recorded for Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Warner Classics International, Capriccio, EMI, and CBS labels. In 2008 he released Elgar’s Violin Concerto featuring James Ehnes with London’s Philharmonia Orchestra (Onyx Classics), which won Gramophone’s award for “Best of Category – Concerto.” Releases in 2007 included Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with Min-Jyn Kim and the Philharmonia Orchestra (Sony); a solo recital of operatic favorites sung by soprano Nicole Cabell with the London Philharmonic Orchestra (Decca), which won the Solti Prize from the French Académie du Disque Lyrique; and Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with pianist Yundi Li and the London Philharmonia Orchestra (Deutsche Grammophon). In 1992 Sir Andrew was named a Commander of the British Empire and, in 1999, was made a Knight Bachelor in the New Year Honours List. In 1991 he received the Royal Philharmonic Society/Charles Heidsieck Music Award.

“Andrew Davis... a man who seems able to put his hand to anything and make a sensitive, committed, rhythmically incisive triumph of it.” (The Independent on Sunday)

Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman’s 2006–07 performances include appearances with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; Peter Oundjian and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra; Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony; Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra; and Gustavo Dudamel with the Israel Philharmonic and on a European tour with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. She will perform solo recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall, Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, University Musical Society’s Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Hertz Hall in Berkeley, California, and other venues.

Highlights of Ms. Brueggergosman’s recent seasons include Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites at the Vancouver Opera, Puccini’s Turandot with Cincinnati Opera, as well as concert performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Leonard Slatkin; Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos; National Arts Centre Orchestra with Patrick Summers; Boston Symphony Orchestra with Hans Graf; and Toronto Symphony Orchestra under Jiri Behlolavek. Her second CD release, Extase, offers Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été and Massenet opera arias with Yoav Talmi and the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec. Ms. Brueggergosman studied at the University of Toronto with Mary Morrison and pursued postgraduate studies in Germany with Edith Wiens. She also has worked with Christoph Eschenbach, Ruth Falcon, Brigitte Fassbaender, Margo Garrett, Håkan Hagegård, Jessye Norman, Rudolf Piernay, and Thomas Quasthoff. This concert marks her Philharmonic debut.