Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition with Markus Stenz

Sergej Rachmaninov - The Isle of the Dead, Modest Mussorgsky / Maurice Ravel - Pictures at an Exhibition. Programme Sergej Rachmaninov The Isle of the Dead Modest Mussorgsky / Maurice Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition In Mussorgsky's greatest hit, paintings come to life, Rachmaninoff was inspired by a painting by Böcklin. For this sensory-stimulating morning, former chief conductor Markus Stenz returns to the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest. Painting Exhibition Modest Mussorgsky visited an exhibition of paintings by his friend Viktor Hartmann, who had died shortly before. He processed his impressions in a piano suite, master orchestrator Maurice Ravel created a beloved orchestral version of these Pictures at an Exhibition. The music is picturesque and at times grand and stately, but also full of humor. Serge Rachmaninoff was also inspired by a series of paintings: his symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead is a musical setting of one of the paintings of the same name by Swiss symbolist Arnold Böcklin. Based on an old Italian legend about a deceased person who steps into his own coffin, in Böcklin's painting we see a figure rowing in a boat towards an island, symbolizing the transition from life to death. Rachmaninoff builds his music ominously, with each stroke the island – and thus death – drawing ever closer. The music is dragging and occasionally somewhat lugubrious, but nonetheless above all strikingly light and brilliant. Markus Stenz The German conductor Markus Stenz brought the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest to great heights during his tenure as chief conductor from 2012. About his farewell concert as chief conductor, in 2019, the Volkskrant wrote: 'He (Stenz) manages to keep the orchestral texture transparent even in the most densely orchestrated passages and at the same time takes you on an intoxicating performance'. NRC published a review with 5 stars. Since his departure, he has conducted the orchestra a few more times. With this picturesque programme, he returns once again to the orchestra he knows so well.