Moesorgski's Schilderijententoonstelling met Markus Stenz

Painting exhibition

Modest Mussorgsky visited an exhibition of paintings by his friend Viktor Hartmann, who had recently passed away. He incorporated his impressions into a piano suite; master orchestrator Maurice Ravel created a beloved orchestral version of this Pictures at an Exhibition. The music is evocative and at times grand and stately, but is also brimming with humor. Serge Rachmaninoff, too, drew inspiration from a series of paintings: his symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead is a musical interpretation of one of the paintings of the same name by the Swiss Symbolist Arnold Böcklin. Based on an old Italian legend about a deceased person stepping into his own coffin, Böcklin's painting depicts a figure sailing in a rowboat toward an island; it symbolizes the transition from life to death. Rachmaninoff builds his music ominously; stroke by stroke, the island—and with it, death—comes ever closer. The music is drawn-out and occasionally a bit macabre, yet above all strikingly light and brilliant.

Markus Stenz

The German conductor Markus Stenz brought the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra to great heights during his chief conductorship starting in 2012. Regarding his farewell concert as chief in 2019, de Volkskrant wrote: 'He (Stenz) succeeds in keeping the orchestral texture transparent even in the most densely instrumented passages, while simultaneously drawing you into an intoxicating performance.' A five-star review appeared in NRC . Since his departure, he has conducted the orchestra a number of times. With this evocative program, he returns once again to the orchestra he knows so well.