EDMONDS — Several arts groups in the region are performing Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” this spring. Not sure why, except that it’s music seemingly made for the season.
Cascade Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Michael Miropolsky, is one group taking on this beautiful suite.
In fact the CSO has titled its season-finale concert for the piece, and you can hear it Monday evening at Edmonds Center for the Arts.
Modest Mussorgsky wrote “Pictures at an Exhibition” in 1874 in memory of his friend, the artist and architect Viktor Hartmann. After Hartmann’s sudden death, an exhibition was mounted in honor of the artist. Mussorgsky was inspired to write the 10-piece suite after attending the art exhibit.
Composed for piano, “Pictures” became better known through orchestrations by other musicians. Maurice Ravel’s arrangement is the most recorded and performed, however, and that is what Cascade Symphony will play.
The concert opens with Tchaikovsky’s “Marche Slave,” and goes into the Haydn Concert for Cello in C major.
The cello soloist is Meeka Quan DiLorenzo.
Before joining the Seattle Symphony in 2009, DiLorenzo, assistant principal of the Seattle cello section, held a similar chair with the Utah Symphony for five seasons. A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music and an avid chamber musician, she has performed with members of the Juilliard and Cleveland quartets.
DiLorenzo has been a prize winner in several national and international competitions. She began her cello studies at age 6 with Beth Goldstein, and went on to study under Julie Feldman, Irene Sharp, Stephan Geber and Richard Aaron.
An interesting thing about this Haydn concerto, written in 1765, is that it was “lost” until a musicologist found a copy of it in the Prague National Museum in 1961. Since then, many famous cellists — including Yo-Yo Ma, Jacqueline du Pre and Mstislav Rostropovich — have recorded it.
Cascade Symphony Orchestra
“Pictures at an Exhibition”: 7:30 p.m. May 8, Edmonds Center for the Arts, 410 Fourth Ave. N. The pre-concert lecture by KING-FM radio’s Dave Beck begins at 6:30 p.m. For tickets — $25 general, $20 for seniors, $15 for students, $10 for children — call 425-275-9595. Due to high demand for tickets, the orchestra urges patrons to return any tickets they will not use to the ECA box office by 6:15 p.m.
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