Pictures at an Exhibition

Concluding the program is a much-loved classic of the orchestra’s repertoire: Ravel’s opulent orchestration of Mussorgsky’s piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition. Inspired by a posthumous exhibit of watercolors and drawings by the composer’s dear friend, Viktor Hartmann, Mussorgsky’s enthusiastic and reverent homage to Hartmann is a series of musical depictions of the artist’s canvasses. Víkingur Ólafsson, a “breathtakingly brilliant pianist” (Gramophone), interprets Ravel’s expansive Piano Concerto in G, drawing inspiration from Bach and Mozart, as well as the new Jazz Age. The concert begins with a rediscovered masterpiece by pioneering 19th-century female composer Louise Farrenc.