KINGSPORT, TN – Experience the power of musical collaboration as Symphony of the Mountains joins forces with the acclaimed Dobyns-Bennett Wind Symphony for an unforgettable side-by-side performance! This special concert brings together professional musicians and talented student performers on one stage, creating a rich tapestry of sound that celebrates the artistry and dedication of our regional music community.

Side-by-side performances offer a unique opportunity to hear these exceptional ensembles blend their voices, sharing the stage as equals in a spirit of mentorship and musical excellence. The result is an inspiring evening that showcases the depth of talent in our region while strengthening the bonds between generations of musicians.

Whether you’re a longtime supporter of the symphony, a proud member of the Dobyns-Bennett community, or simply a lover of live music, this collaborative concert promises to be a memorable celebration of what we can achieve when we make music together!

Students and Children receive FREE tickets, courtesty of the Ty and Julann Warren Family Foundation! Group discounts available for 10+ people. Call (423) 392-8423 or email info@symphonyofthemountains.org to reserve your seats.

Symphony of the Mountains will perform:

Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition – a musical journey through an art gallery

Pictures at an Exhibition………………………………Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881)
orch. Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

I.Promenade
II.Gnomus
III.Promenade
IV.The Old Castle
V.Promenade
VI.Tuileries (Dispute d’enfants après jeux)
VII.Bydlo
VIII.Promenade
IX.Ballet of Unhatched Chicks
X.Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuÿle
XI.Promenade
XII.Limoges. The Market (Women’s Quarrel)
XIII.Catacombs (Sepulcrum Romanum)
XIV.Cum mortuis in lingua mortua (With the Dead in a Dead Language)
XV.The Hut on Fowl’s Legs (Baba Yaga)
XVI.The Great Gate of Kiev

Dobyns-Bennett High School Wind Symphony, under the direction of Lafe Cook, will perform:

Adam Schoenberg’s Rise from Beginnings

Sir Arthur Sullivan’s Pineapple Poll, Suite from the Ballet
     I. Opening Number

H. Owen Reed’s La Fiesta Mexicana.
     III. Carnival

Richard Rogers Guadalcanal March from Victory at Sea

Both Symphony of the Mountains and the DB Wind Symphony will join to perform:

Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol – featuring vibrant Spanish themes and brilliant orchestral colors

Capriccio Espagnol, op. 34……..…………….Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)

I.Alborada
II.Variazioni
III.Alborada (reprise)
IV.Scena e Canto Gitano
V.Fandango Asturiano

PROGRAM NOTES

Pictures at an Exhibition

Russian composer, Modest Mussorgsky became good friends with his compatriot, the artist and architect, Viktor Hartmann (1834-1873) in the late 1860s. Hartmann’s sudden death in 1873 deeply saddened the composer who was inspired by a memorial exhibition of Hartmann’s works to commemorate his friend in a piano composition titled Pictures at an Exhibition which portrays Hartmann’s visual art in musical form.  Mussorgsky’s fellow composers soon realized the potential for this work to be transcribed for orchestra (i.e., the melodies, harmonies and rhythms are maintained, but the work is now played by a full orchestra rather than just the piano).  Of the eleven transcriptions of Pictures at an Exhibition for orchestra, it is the 1922 version by French composer, Maurice Ravel which is the most popular and which you will hear today.

Rather than simply presenting a set of pieces inspired by Hartmann’s artworks, Mussorgsky creates a dynamic experience.  The first short movement, “Promenade” depicts the composer striding into the exhibition space with a confident melody in the trumpet, which will return at various points in the work.  It is as if the composer himself is taking us around the exhibition and reminiscing about his friend. Most of the tiny movements follow one from the other in a seamless succession. The first artwork we encounter is “Gnomus,” a design for a whimsical nutcracker Christmas-tree ornament in the shape of a grotesque gnome. The musical portrayal is unnervingly unpredictable as the music shifts between three contrasting moods: the spasmodic, the lunging, and the sinister.  As if in reassurance, the composer moves us on to the next image via a gentle return to the “Promenade” music.  The lilting rhythms of “The Old Castle” are at once soothing and mournful, perhaps suggesting a song sung by the lone minstrel Hartmann places in the scene.  Again, the composer accompanies us via the “Promenade” music as we move to regard a scene Hartmann painted of the Tuileries gardens in Paris where he shows children playing with their nanny. Mussorgsky uses chattering woodwinds to depict the playful cries of the children.  As if wanting to find the greatest contrast we move seamlessly to view a painting of an ox cart (Bydlo). You might notice the music, which uses the lower instruments of the orchestra) starts softly, gradually getting louder as if the lumbering vehicle is approaching from a distance and then moves past us getting softer.  Interestingly, Mussorgsky’s original does not do this, but began fortissimo (i.e., very loudly).  It was a later editor (Rimsky-Korsakov) who made the change and it was so effective, that it was retained.

As the “Promenade” returns, you might notice the different ways the composer presents the same music, but with a different flavor each time, as he continues to guide us around the exhibition. Hartmann’s costume design for the Imperial Bolshoi Ballet showing dancers costumed as newly hatched chicks emerging from their shells was for the 1870 fairy-tale ballet Trilby. The musical representation is full of little chirps and cheeps in the orchestra illustrating the unsteady gait and call of the hatchlings. The next two images were not in the memorial exhibition of Hartmann’s artwork – they are sketches that the artist gifted to Mussorgsky in 1868 (depicting a rich and poor Jew respectively).  Mussorgsky represents them with a single movement, (Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuÿle) giving them names and imagining an exchange between the two.  Notice the contrasting characters that the composer assigns to each, one slow, secure and confident (heard in the low strings) and the other (heard in the trumpet) faster and more insistent.  Shifting to our next image, the bustling market place at Limoges provides a stark contrast.  Here Mussorgsky imagined a quarrel between the women in the picture as the musical lines scurry around each other, becoming louder and softer in waves.

We turn immediately to Hartmann’s image of the catacombs in Paris and Mussorgsky gives us a sinister representation with music that moves between extremes and seems unable to find a place of rest. Stability, however, is restored as our gaze shifts to “Cum mortuis in lingua mortua” (With the Dead in a Dead Language) and the music becomes more reflective. You will notice that the promenade theme is embedded in this movement.  Hartmann’s image shows the artist and a companion viewing the catacombs by the light of a lantern.  By embedding the promenade theme, Mussorgsky seems to place himself in the picture, as if he were the friend with Hartmann in the catacombs. The serenity of the moment is soon shattered as we move to “The Hut on Fowl’s Legs (Baba Yaga)” – a design by Hartmann for a fantastical clock shaped like a hut on fowl’s legs and recalling the legend of the Slavic witch or crone who was purported to live in a hut on fowl’s legs and to feast on children. One of the longest of the movements, the outer sections with their unpredictable rhythms and loud volume suggest the terrible wrath of the witch, while the quieter, more sinister middle section lets us hear the ticking of Hartmann’s clock.  We seamlessly transition to the final picture in the exhibition: “The Great Gate of Kiev.”  This was Hartmann’s entry into an 1869 competition to design a ceremonial gate to celebrate Alexander II avoiding assassination at Kiev in 1866.  The opening, heroic theme may refer to Alexander II himself with its stately speed and prominence of the brass instruments.  A much softer section in the winds uses the traditional chant melody (As you are baptized in Christ) which frames, the triumphant pealing of bells (Hartmann’s design included three bells), before the heroic conclusion, incorporating the promenade theme, It is almost as if Mussorgsky walks through Hartmann’s gate as he leaves the exhibition with fond memories of his good friend.

Capriccio Espagnol

It is to another nineteenth-century, Russian composer that we turn for the second work in today’s program.  Nicolai Rimski-Korsakov is well-known for his creative and colorful use of the different sounds (timbres) available in the orchestra.  This is exemplified in his Capriccio Espagnol, the title of which might loosely be translated as “Spanish Fantasy.”

Capriccio Espagnol conjures up an exotic musical experience in five short movements.  It is dominated (in the first and third movements) by an albadora – a joyful traditional song performed at daybreak for weddings and other celebrations. This is heard as an ebullient conversation between the full orchestra, clarinet and solo violin.

The second movement is slower and more introspective, beginning with the brass in choir-like formation, The winding melody and harmonies are then picked up by the strings. A central section becomes a little more mournful as the English horn (a low-pitched relative of the oboe), and other winds and brass instruments pass musical motives back and forth over tremolos (a shimmering effect) in the strings before the music returns to the mood of the opening.

The fourth movement belies Rimsky-Korsakov’s original plan: a work for solo violin and orchestra.  It begins with a “scena” – a term borrowed from Italian opera (an episode made up of diverse sections) – which consists of a brass fanfare over a drum-roll and a dramatic violin solo leading into a “canto gitano” (gypsy song) initiated by the percussionists who set up a recurring rhythm and are quickly joined by the rest of the orchestra. The gypsy song, however, is almost immediately interrupted by lyrical solos for flute, clarinet, oboe and harp, before the music returns to the colorful gypsy song.

The final movement begins with a Fandango (a lively, sensual, couples dance), briefly returning to the music of the albadora for a rousing conclusion.

© Alison P. Deadman, March 2026

*program subject to change

 

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