Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition

Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition Program Notes Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition. Like  other  members  of  The  Mighty  Handful  (Rimsky-Korsakoff,  Borodin,  et  al), Modest Mussorgsky  aimed  to  create  a  Russian  musical  sound.  As  a  very  young  child,  he’d  been  drawn  to  the  piano,  musically  retelling  his  nanny’s  Russian  tales.    In  St. Read more…

Anthony Mosakowski Concert Overture

Anthony Mosakowski Concert Overture Program Notes It’s  always  exciting  to  introduce  a  piece  of  music  to  an  audience  for  the  first  time,  especially  a  work  like  Anthony  Mosakowski’s  Concert  Overture,  with  its  great  energy,  artistry,  sense  of  melody  and  craft.  The  Overture,  for  an  orchestra  of single  winds,  varied  percussion,  harp,  piano Read more…

Beethoven Egmont Overture No.1

Beethoven Egmont Overture Program Notes We  can’t  appropriate  Beethoven’s  exact  politics  (although  thousands  have  tried),  but  we  can  be  certain  he  identified  with  the  concept  of  freedom  (setting  Schiller’s  Ode  to  Joy,  with  its  defeat  to  the  lying  brood  of  undeserving  crowns).  Egmont  is  no  exception,  Beethoven  enthusiastically  writing  incidental  music Read more…

Dukas La Péri Fanfare

Dukas La Péri Fanfare Program Notes In  Persian  mythology,  a  Péri,  like  the  Western  folkloric  Fairy,  has  a  morally  ambiguous  position:  its  magical  powers  can  be  used  for  positive  ends  or  otherwise.  For  the  1911  Paris  season  of  the  Ballets  Russes,  Serge  Diaghilev  commissioned  Dukas  to  compose  a  fantastical  one-act Read more…