Tucson Symphony Orchestra will perform Modest Mussorgskyβs βPictures At An Exhibitionβ this weekend, and for the first time in all the years that it has performed the 10-part suite, it will add a multimedia twist.
βPictures,β under the baton of guest conductor Marcelo Lehninger, will be accompanied by animation created by the Grammy-winning team of Michael Patterson and Candace Reckinger.
Patterson and Reckinger, the creative force behind music videos for A-Haβs βTake On Meβ and Suzanne Vegaβs βLuka,β created the βPicturesβ animation for the early 2011 gala opening of Miamiβs high-tech Frank Gehry-designed New World Center. The pair worked with conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, whose young artists training ensemble New World Symphony is the primary resident of the new concert hall, to create animated scenes to go along with Mussorgskyβs 30-minute work.
βWe actually set up group Skype calls with our teams and Michael Tilson Thomas would play piano,β Patterson said during a phone interview with Reckinger from Los Angeles last week. βIt was really thrilling.β
This was the first time the pair β known professionally as Patterson + Reckinger β had worked with classical music. For more than a decade in the 1980s-β90s, they animated and directed pop music videos including MC Skat Katβs βBig Time,β Stingβs βBe Still My Beating Heartβ and Paula Abdulβs βOpposites Attract,β which earned them a Grammy Award.
βThe whole time we were doing music videos and we were doing popular music, we actually had symphony tickets because we loved classical music,β Reckinger said.
In 2010, Tilson Thomas, the critically acclaimed San Francisco Symphony conductor, turned to Patterson + Reckinger and his University of Southern California alma mater to create animation for βPictures At An Exhibition.β
Reckinger said the conductor tutored the pair on the Russian composerβs suite of 10 βpicturesβ inspired by Mussorgskyβs artist friend Viktor Hartmann. The parts include βThe Gnome,β who clumsily runs with crooked legs; βCatacombs,β a downright frightening exploration of Paris by lantern light; and βBallet of Unhatched Chicks,β a playful woodwinds romp that creates a brilliant image of mischievous chicks breaking out of their shells.
Reckinger said they based their animation on the idea of the actual pictures, but not the pictures themselves.
βAs we worked on it, we realized it was actually an idea that really communicates to a modern audience. Itβs world-building, its psychological,β she said of the images they created that included sepia-toned scenes from the early 20th century of people strolling through a museum or art gallery in βTuileriesβ to Tim Burton-esque skeletons on sticks in the βHut on Fowlβs Legs.β
The 2011 production was designed for New World Centerβs six panoramic screens that wrap around the audience. The production was adapted several years later for a single screen using new digital technology from Ion Concert Media founder Scott Winters. Patterson said the new technology allows each orchestra to manipulate the animation to sync with their tempo rather than follow a set flow.
βSo basically you still get the scope of it,β he said. βItβs a very similar experience but it doesnβt wrap around.β
