A Gallery In Sound And Color

By 1808Delaware

This Sunday at 3:00 PM, the Central Ohio Symphony invites audiences into a program that moves with purpose and imagination, from grand Romantic overture to contemporary rhythm, and finally into one of the most vivid orchestral works ever composed. Set inside the resonant space of Gray Chapel, the concert brings together sound, movement, and even live visual art.

A Program That Builds Momentum

Under the direction of Jaime Morales-Matos, the afternoon opens with the sweeping grandeur of Richard Wagner’s Overture to Tannhäuser (1845). It is a work of dramatic contrast, shifting between sacred chorales and sensuous energy, setting a tone that is both expansive and emotionally charged.

From there, the focus turns sharply to the present with Procession (2023) by Jessie Montgomery. This inventive percussion concerto features soloist Josh Jones, whose performance becomes the centerpiece of the program’s middle arc. The work is rhythmic, kinetic, and layered, offering a contemporary counterpoint to the Romantic scale of Wagner.

Pictures Come to Life

The second half of the program is devoted to Pictures at an Exhibition, originally composed in 1874 by Modest Mussorgsky and later transformed into its most celebrated orchestral form by Maurice Ravel.

Mussorgsky conceived the suite as a tribute to his friend, the artist Viktor Hartmann, translating visual works into music. Each movement becomes a scene: the weight of Bydło, the chatter of children in Tuileries, the eerie menace of Baba Yaga, and the triumphant close of The Great Gate of Kiev. Threaded throughout is the recurring “Promenade,” a musical self-portrait of the composer moving through the gallery.

What distinguishes this performance is the addition of live painting by Lance Johnson. As the orchestra unfolds Mussorgsky’s sonic images, Johnson will create visual interpretations in real time, offering a parallel artistic response that evolves alongside the music.

A Convergence of Disciplines

This is not simply a concert but a layered experience. The structure of the program, from Wagner’s operatic intensity to Montgomery’s modern pulse and Mussorgsky’s narrative suite, creates a clear trajectory. The inclusion of percussion as a featured voice and painting as a live element adds dimensionality that extends beyond traditional symphonic performance. For audiences, the result is immersive: a movement from sound to rhythm to image, all within a single afternoon.