Bloomington Symphony Orchestra concludes 49th season with Pictures at an Exhibition

(BLOOMINGTON) – As the old adage goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. At the final concert of the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra’s 2018-2019 season, the orchestra will explore whether the same holds true for a
piece of music with a performance of Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.


Bloomington Symphony Orchestra will perform A Thousand Words, a concert featuring Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition on Sunday, May 19 at 7 p.m. at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, 114 E. Kirkwood Avenue, Bloomington, IN
After the death in 1873 of Mussorgsky’s friend Viktor Hartmann, a prominent painter with whom he shared a vision of creating distinctly Russian art, Mussorgsky began to compose a work inspired by Hartmann’s paintings.
The piece comprises 10 musically illustrated scenes separated by five promenades, which represent the composer walking from painting to painting. The scenes include a rude gnome, a proud old castle, an innocuous fight between children, lumbering cows, a ballet of unhatched chicks, and two portraits of Polish Jews, as well as a terrifying encounter with the Baba Yaga, a forest-dwelling old woman from Russian folklore who stands on hen’s legs. The work concludes with a glorious imagining of the Great Golden Gates of Kiev.
The program also includes:
Concerto No. 4 in D major for Violin and Orchestra by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. BSO Artistic Director and Conductor Alejandro Gómez Guillén will step down from the podium and perform the violin solo.
East of the Sun, West of the Moon, a work by Indiana University Jacobs School of Music student Leigha Amick, who was one of two winners in the school division of the BSO’s 2018 Composition Competition.
Based on a Norwegian fairy tale, the piece depicts the epic love story between the story’s heroine and a prince who is cursed to live as a bear from dawn to dusk.
The audience also will get a special preview of the 2019-2020 season – the orchestra’s fiftieth anniversary season – during the concert.
Tickets are available at the Buskirk-Chumley box office or online at bctboxoffice.org.
General admission: $15 advance, $18 day of concert.
Student with ID: $8 advance, $10 day of concert.
18 and under: free (ticket required)

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