“Two takes on Mussorgsky’s celebrated ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ were at the core of the Allentown Symphony Orchestra’s concerts this weekend” led by Music Director Diane Wittry, writes Steve Siegel in Tuesday’s (3/13) Morning Call (Allentown). “Featured was a complete performance of the work, accompanied by the East Coast premiere of an animated video produced by a team of students and graduates at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles. Opening the program was the world premiere of ‘Pictures at an Exhibition 2018,’ in which seven composers from the tristate area gave their own musical interpretations of six works of art on permanent display at the Allentown Art Museum…. Each of the seven sections in the 20-minute [‘Pictures at an Exhibition 2018’] was accompanied by a projected image of the painting being described…. [In] Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ … sitting with the musicians with a laptop computer in hand was Scott Winters [who] had developed a new video technology called Muséik, which allows animated visuals accompanying a symphonic performance to be ‘played’ from within the orchestra using an iPad interface. Wittry could choose any pace she favored, with Winters coordinating the image timing with her conducting cadences. The whole process went splendidly.”
Posted March 14, 2018
