VSO puts Russian masters on display in Pictures at an Exhibition, May 15 and 17
Guest conductor Peter Oundjian and pianist Simon Trpčeski are featured in program of works by Modest Mussorgsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and U.S. composer Joan Tower
(Left to right) Simon Trpčeski, Peter Oundjian
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra presents Pictures at an Exhibition at the Orpheum on May 15 at 7 p.m. and May 17 at 2 p.m.
VIKTOR HARTMANN WAS a 19th-century Russian architect and painter, but if you want to experience his work today, you’ll have to listen to Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.
Well, that’s not entirely true. Some of Hartmann’s art has survived, but of the more than 400 pieces in the posthumous exhibition at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg that inspired Mussorgsky’s suite, most are now lost.
So, while we can only speculate as to what the composer was looking at when he wrote movements such as “The Gnome” and “The Old Castle”, we’re fortunate enough to have the VSO—under the baton of visiting Toronto Symphony Orchestra conductor emeritus Peter Oundjian—around to help fire up our imaginations.
We can consider ourselves doubly lucky that on the same program, the VSO will play host to Simon Trpčeski. Considered one of the world’s top-tier pianists, the Macedonian musician will perform Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1.
Rounding out the program is Concerto for Orchestra by Joan Tower—a piece by a living American woman to offset the ones by long-dead Russian guys.
While he’s in town, Trpčeski will present a piano master class for advanced students at Pyatt Hall on May 14 at 5 p.m. 
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