November 10, 1999
Contact: Charla Jenkins, University Theatre, (785) 864-2684.
LAWRENCE -- "Pictures from an Exhibition: What Did Ravel Do to Mussorgsky?" is the theme of a concert to be performed by the University of Kansas Symphony Orchestra at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 21, in the Lied Center at KU. Brian Priestman, KU director of orchestra activities, is conductor of the 93-piece symphony.
The orchestra concert will open with Maria Alexandra Eiras, Lawrence postgraduate piano student, performing the piano suite "Pictures form an Exhibition" by Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky.
Following her solo performance, the KUSO will play Maurice Ravel's orchestration of the 16-part Mussorgsky work. During the performance, slides will be shown of the pictures that inspired the work.
Heather Jensen, Lawrence graduate student in art history, who reproduced the pictures, said Mussorgsky's work was inspired by the 1874 memorial exhibition of the Russian architect V. A. Hartman.
"Hartman's unexpected death in the summer of 1873 had a marked impact on the artistic community of St. Petersburg and particularly on Mussorgsky, who had been with him at the time of his death and who wrote his obituary," Jensen said. "Vladimir Stasov, one of the exhibition's organizers, a musician and close friend of both artists, said Mussorgsky, who loved Hartman passionately and was deeply moved by his death, planned to draw in music the best pictures of his deceased friend, representing himself as he strolled through the exhibition, joyfully or sadly, recalling the highly talented artist.
"Several of the segments in the piano suite were based on watercolors executed by the artist during travels in Europe," Jensen said. "In all, 400 items by Hartman were featured in the exhibition. Today less than 100 are known to exist and of these only six designs and illustrations that relate to the Mussorgsky suite can be identified with any certainty."
General admission tickets for the orchestra concert are now on sale in the KU box offices: Lied Center, 864-ARTS; Murphy Hall, 864-3982; and SUA, 864-3477. Tickets are $5 for the public and $4 for all students and senior citizens. Both VISA and MasterCard are accepted for phone orders.