Last November, in a surprise upset, Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition displaced Beethoven’s 9th Symphony as the number one listener favorite in WETA Classical’s annual Classical Countdown. You could say that Beethoven’s monumental symphony was “primaried” by a group of dedicated music students from Virginia’s Oakcrest School who felt “Pictures” deserved a chance in the limelight.
You’ll see why the students fell in love with Mussorgsky’s masterpiece in June’s NSO Showcase as Gianandrea Noseda conducts the National Symphony Orchestra in a program featuring the Pictures at an Exhibition as well as Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra (of 2001 A Space Odyssey fame) and Nino Rota’s ballet suite from the Zeffirelli movie La Strada.
NSO Showcase airs Wednesday, April 4 at 9 p.m. on WETA Classical and streams all month long on WETAClassical.org. (And if you’d like to find out more about the Oakcrest School’s musical activism, check out the story on this blog)
WETA Passport
Stream tens of thousands of hours of your PBS and local favorites with WETA Passport whenever and wherever you want. Catch up on a single episode or binge-watch full seasons before they air on TV.