NEW CD
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PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION - REFLECTED AND REFRACTED
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Australia Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra conducted by Jeffrey Crellin
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Available at the Pro Arte office or you can order on-line here. Price - $26.00
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|  | Mussorgsky wrote his piano suite, Pictures at an Exhibition, in 1874. By the year 2000 Mussorgsky's work had been arranged for orchestra by over 70 composers, to say nothing of the numerous non-orchestral arrangements.
The version on this CD is a unique one for chamber orchestra by Australian-Chinese composer Julian Yu. A Japanese critic has said of Yu's arrangement: "Ravel's position is unshakeable, but from an intellectual point of view, this new arrangement surpasses that of Ravel".
The uniqueness of Yu's version is due at least in part to his background in Chinese music with its refined elegance and its tradition of ornamentation, of 'making something new from the old'. He does not aim for grandeur but contrast, and gives himself the freedom to diverge from and develop Mussorgsky's original ideas, the better to bring out their meaning and achieve special effects and atmospheres.
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