Sometimes something can be gained in translation. In their bold new enterprise, Pictures Reframed, the Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes and Robin Rhode, a South African artist, have re-imagined Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.” Andsnes calls it “one of the wildest pieces ever written,” which in a way makes it ideal for a wild approach. In Reframed, Andsnes plays the piano at the middle of a stage set, on which Rhode’s images (both moving and stop-action) are projected. Mussorgsky’s inspiration was an exhibition of drawings and watercolors by his late friend, Viktor Hartmann. Only some survive, and few concertgoers are familiar with them, but Mussorgsky’s music vividly conjures them up: catacombs, a hut on hen’s legs, a vast gate. Andsnes and Rhode, working to expand the traditional boundaries of their art forms, invite us to experience familiar music in an unfamiliar way, and judging by what was available online before the premiere, they have created something inventive, delightful and even thrilling. In the dramatic “Great Gate of Kiev,” for example, a piano is submerged in an onrush of water, and it’s truly breathtaking. Both artists acknowledge, somewhat giddily, that they’re taking an enormous risk, and both aim for transcendence. They may well have pulled it off.
Pictures Reframed had its world premiere at Lincoln Center in New York City in November, and from there embarked on a major international tour, including stops in Washington, Houston and Chapel Hill, NC. If you can’t get to any of them, treat yourself to the CD and DVD from EMI Classics.
