Evento

Orchestra Seattle | Seattle Chamber Singers: Friendship + Imagination

Stilian Kirov, conductor

Liadov: The Enchanted Lake, Op. 62
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64
Mussorgsky/orch. Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition

Guest conductor Stilian Kirov currently serves as associate conductor of the Seattle Symphony and, following a successful debut in 2012, also appears regularly as a guest conductor at Pacific Northwest Ballet.

Felix Mendelssohn wrote his beloved violin concerto for Ferdinand David, his childhood friend, who provided the composer with technical advice throughout the work's six-year gestation.

When Russian painter Viktor Hartmann died suddenly at the age of 39, an exhibition was organized for which Modest Mussorgsky loaned several paintings from his own collection to honor the artist, his close friend. The event inspired Mussorgsky to compose in a mere six weeks a suite for solo piano that depicted in music several of Hartmann's drawings and watercolors.

Over the ensuing 150 years many composers have transcribed Mussorgsky's piano music for various ensembles, but none more famously than Maurice Ravel, whose brilliant orchestral palette proved the perfect match for Hartmann's artistry and Mussorgsky's tone painting.