The program featured Modest Mussorgsky’s 1874 composition, “Pictures at an Exhibition.” This piece was originally a piano suite in 10 movements; in 1922, Maurice Ravel, composer and master orchestrator, adapted it for orchestra.
Mussorgsky wrote “Pictures” in memory of his friend, architect and artist Viktor Hartmann, who had died suddenly in 1873. Indeed, visual art played a big role in the second half of the CPNJ’s program, which featured 10 new pieces of art in special collaboration with Artworks Trenton.
The participating artists were Tamara Torres, Trenton; Alia Bensliman, Robbinsville; Kathleen Hurley Liao, West Windsor; Amanda Chesney, Lawrence; Mayfield Williams, Lambertville; Leon Rainbow, Trenton; Hannah Fink, Franklin Township; Diya Paul; Katelyn Liepins, Hamilton; and Artworks Trenton director Addison Vincent.
The concept of the suite is a viewer strolling through an exhibition, stopping to enjoy each painting. And so, as each section (or “artwork”) was played, an original work by an area artist was displayed on a screen above the orchestra.
“Pictures at an Exhibition” begins with the stately Promenade, a brilliant solo trumpet in this iteration, and then moves onto “The Gnome.” I always enjoy the CPNJ’s brass section, have praised them numerous times, and I do so again now. The lower brass in particular rumbled and buzzed through this eerie passage, balanced by a flourish in the strings and percussion.
