Great Barrington — Close Encounters with Music presents pianist Max Levinson, soprano Danielle Talamantes, and cellist Yehuda Hanani in a recital of visually inspired works by Modest Mussorgsky, Enrique Granados, Franz Liszt, and Claude Debussy at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, March 26.
We can see from its title that Sunday’s program is about the intersection of music and the visual arts, each work being linked to a famous painting. “Painting and music project the same aesthetic outlook, the same sensibilities,” writes Artistic Director Yehuda Hanani. “Listen to the foot stomping and bagpipes at the village merry-making in a Breughel painting, or the yearning klezmer tune of Chagall’s Fiddler. And doesn’t Edvard Munch’s frozen, primal scream pierce your inner ear? Painting and music are intimate sisters.”
And it’s safe to say that Mussorgsky would agree. His signature “Great Gate of Kiev” was inspired by probably the most famous painting in this program, Viktor Hartmann’s “Plan for a City Gate in Kiev.” This grand and majestic theme, the final movement of the “Pictures at an Exhibition” suite, represents the triumphal arch that was to be the centerpiece of the gate.
And when you hear it (again), you’ll agree that Mussorgsky probably did not attend the “less-is-more” school of music composition. He was one of the so-called “Mighty Five” Russian composers who made names for themselves by composing music of great bombast and grandiosity. “Pictures” serves as exhibit A.
Pianists consider “Pictures at an Exhibition” to be slightly less technically demanding than Liszt’s most difficult pieces. Performing it is an act of daring, because even if you have the rare chops to play it, you still need incredible stamina to pull the whole thing off. (Anyone who has seen it performed will tell you as much.)
That’s why CEWM engaged the monstrously capable Max Levinson for this program. Recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and first prize in the 1997 Dublin International Piano Competition, Levinson has performed as a soloist with many major orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has also given recitals in major concert halls around the world, including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, and the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall. He has recorded several critically acclaimed albums, including a complete cycle of Beethoven’s piano sonatas.
Joining Levinson on Marc 26, soprano Danielle Talamantes has performed as a soloist with major orchestras and opera companies in the United States and abroad, including the National Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Richmond Symphony, and Virginia Symphony Orchestras. She has also performed with such opera companies as the Washington National Opera, the Virginia Opera, and the Lyric Opera of Virginia.
Close Encounters Artistic Director Yehuda Hanani joins Levinson and Talamantes on cello in performances of works by Modest Mussorgsky, Enrique Granados, Franz Liszt, and Claude Debussy at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center Sunday, March 26, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tickets here.
