I am really happy my association with the Cheltenham Music Festival continues to grow. This year, I will be joining the magnificent Flowers Band – one of the U.K’s top brass ensembles, for a roof-raising performance of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”. Here they are, outside the Royal Albert Hall:
This wonderful work has become something of a calling card for me recently, but this is the first time I have worked with the brass arrangement by Elgar Howarth. It is truly SPECTACULAR!!!
Modeste Mussorgsky’s “Pictures” was written for solo piano in 1874, and was never arranged for orchestra by the composer, although many since have done so, most famously Maurice Ravel. Mussorgsky was inspired by a series of pictures by the artist Viktor Hartmann, a friend who had died, and whose work was presented in a memorial exhibition that Mussorgsky attended. He was moved to remember his friend with a suite of ten “pictures in music” linked by a musical theme, representing the visitor to the gallery strolling around (the “promenade”).
The pictures are varied and sometimes bizarre: the Gnomus is a gnome, possibly a nutcracker, and the House on Chicken’s Legs is the home of the Russian witch Baba-Yaga. There is a ballet of unhatched chicks, an old Italian castle, skulls glowing in the catacombs, amongst the extraordinary images. Many of the original pictures are now lost, but a few remain.
This is Baba Yaga’s house by Hartmann – a design for a clock!
And here is the Great Gate of Kiev: a memorial gateway inspired by stories of Russian Knights in Armour (Bogatyrs):
These delicate images are the result of many hours of fine painting by Hartmann.
During the concert, I will be painting live to the music – and my pictures will not look quite like these! SOME of the musical pictures last around 60 seconds, so it means I will be painting in a very different manner to Mr. Hartmann, and very fast! However, I will be faithful to the music and themes. There WILL be a great gate for Kiev. Baba-Yaga’s hut will appear before your eyes, in time to music! Castles and Ox-carts and children playing in Parisian parks; French markets and mysterious castles will emerge, and all will be introduced with special verses to give to music a context for children.
I absolutely LOVE this music, and I’m confident that this will be a wonderful occasion. The Flowers band will generously play Holst’s “Mars” from the Planets, Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” (Peer Gynt) and William’s theme from Indiana Jones.
Tickets (selling fast!) are available from the Cheltenham Music Festival website which is HERE:
http://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/music/whats-on/2015/james-mayhew-paints-mussorgskys-pictures/
Preceding this, there will be five days of outreach workshops, combing music and art, built around the BBC 10 pieces – a scheme to bring classical music into schools. This is followed by a schools concert in the magnificent Town Hall in Cheltenham, where I will be joining members of the Flowers Band for some of the 10 pieces, and extracts from Mussorgsky’s “Pictures”.
It will be a busy few weeks! And I know I will love every minute of it!
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