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
Conductor, born in 1944 in Ashridge, England
Sir Andrew Davis has distinguished himself as a conductor of the symphonic and operatic repertoire and has garnered acclaim for his performances of music by British composers, especially that of Vaughan Williams, Elgar, and Michael Tippett, and of contemporary repertoire. When he was a child, he sang in his church choir and from an early age studied organ and piano, pursuing his interest in keyboard music when he enrolled at the Royal College of Music in London, and later at King’s College, Cambridge. He distinguished himself especially in organ performance and scholarship and was an “organ scholar” (i.e., a term used to describe a young musician who works part-time as an assistant organist in an institution where choral services are held. Additionally it is an opportunity to get experience in playing, directing, and administration.). He also played harpsichord and organ with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and recorded Bach concertos with Raymond Leppard and the English Chamber Orchestra. Eventually, however, he took up the baton, studying at Rome’s famed Accademia de Santa Cecilia. Podium appointments came quickly at orchestras and opera companies in Europe, Canada, and the United States. The “Organ Symphony” seems an ideal work to conduct, given Sir Andrew’s background, and he says, “I decided to do a French program using the Chausson as the starting point, because Susan Graham wanted to sing the work. I had conducted the Saint-Saëns with the Philharmonic in Vail last summer, and it was lovely; and many years ago I conducted it with the orchestra from the keyboard. So I have a nice history with the piece and the Philharmonic. As for the Berlioz, this is an overture I haven’t done in many decades, but I heard the orchestra perform it with Colin Davis, and had forgotten how much I loved it. They did it so beautifully, that I thought I’d have a go.”

“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)

Find additional upcoming performances with Sir Andrew Davis

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.