Art, music

The exhibition Pictures at an Exhibition opens in the Liebrecht Gallery in Somerset West on Friday December 7, at 7pm, and as part of “the bigger picture” a performance of the Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky’s masterpiece Pictures at an Exhibition will be presented in the gallery on Friday December 14, at 7pm. The suite consists of 10 pieces and they are his musical illustrations of 10 works by the Russian artist Viktor Hartmann, on a retrospective exhibition of more than 400 of his works in St Petersburg in 1874. The pianist is Tertia Visser Downie, a South African pianist who studied under national and international piano masters John Antoniadis and London-based Martino Tirimo after winning the prestigious Mabel Quick Overseas Scholarship. She received her Fellowship from the Trinity College of Music in 2016. In 2009 she joined the poet Philip de Vos on a national tour to bring Pictures at an Exhibition to stage, radio and television. De Vos wrote 10 English poems inspired by the 10 pieces of Mussorgsky’s music, which were later published, and acts as the narrator between pieces. With this performance by the pianist Visser Downie, with De Vos the narrator, and with the paintings of Rachelle Hugo, Ydi Coetsee and Sharon Moses on exhibition during the performance, the “bigger picture” is completed – the visual arts, music, and literature come together and both the visual arts and the performing arts are involved. Tickets cost R120 for the concert, and are available at the gallery ahead of time. For more information, contact Avril Gardiner at 021 852 8030 or 082 682 5710. Pictred above is Tertia Visser Downie, and left, Gnome, oil on canvas, by Sharon Moses.