Kid Kempf A young gun comes to the Merrill packing Mussorgsky BY BECCA DEWAN

PCA Great Performances brings another badass to the Merrill Auditorium stage in Freddy Kempf, a fabulous pianist performing a concert of Beethoven and Mussorgsky on Wednesday, November 17. He’s your typical young gun: Born in 1977, in England, Kempf made his debut with the Royal Philharmonic at age 8 (ho hum), and in 1992 (at 15) he was named BBC Young Musician of the Year.

Up until the 1998 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, Kempf remained a solely English phenomenon. However, after a dazzling performance in Moscow, he burst onto the international stage. The audience went wild at the end of his set, but, despite the unprecedented audience reaction, Kempf placed third, behind two Russian-trained pianists. Whispers speak to it having been a fixed competition; either way, it was a large stepping stone for Kempf. In the six years since the competition, Kempf has recorded seven albums with BIS Records and has been giving concerts all around the globe.

The first part of the program he’ll perform for us consists of two Beethoven sonatas — Op. 13 in C minor, or "Pathétique"; and Op. 27 No. 2 in C# minor, or "Moonlight." All of the best Beethoven sonatas have nicknames — Tempest, Appassionata, Waldstein, to name a few others. Perhaps you’ve heard of a few of these?

Snippets of many Beethoven compositions have worked their way into mainstream culture in America. But hardly ever are the whole pieces recognized. Cellphones and movie scores alike use motives from his 5th symphony for impending doom, his 9th for glorious rejoicing, and Für Elise for an annoying ring tone. A little cursory Internet research reveals that the Moonlight and Pathétique sonatas have been used in at least 15 mainstream feature films in the past 10 years. So why go out of your way to hear the pieces in a concert when they’ve infiltrated our culture? Because these are two masterpieces of piano literature being performed by an accomplished pianist, not just background filler while Nicole Kidman looks rigid.

The last part of the program is occupied by Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, probably his most well-known piece, thanks to the number of people who have orchestrated it over the years. Ravel’s orchestration of a Rimsky-Korsakov edition of Mussorgsky’s original is the most commonly performed version of Pictures.

It’s very common for great composers to be accomplished pianists and Mussorgsky (1839-1881) was no exception. He began piano lessons at a young age with his mother, then, when he was sent away to prep school, he had the opportunity to study with one of the best teachers in St. Petersburg. After prep school he entered the Guards’ cadet school to become and army officer, and found debauchery rather than academic study was the focus of most students. During these years the seeds of the alcoholism that later killed him were sown.

Populism and realism were rampant among artistic, cultural, and philosophical circles during the middle of the 19th century in Russia. After leaving the army, Mussorgsky traveled a great deal in these circles through which he befriended Victor Hartman, an architect.

Eighteen seventy-four was not an easy year for Mussorgsky. He was working a full-time clerical job in the Forestry Department of the Ministry of State Property, which he found to be thoroughly depressing and demoralizing. Late the year before, Hartman had died of an aneurysm at the young age of 39. Mussorgsky was angry with himself that he did not see the warning signs of his friend’s waning health. Perhaps he even felt partially guilty or to blame for the death.

So, when the Architect Society in Russia decided to honor Hartman with a memorial exhibition of all of his works that were available, many of them not necessarily architecture-related, Mussorgsky saw it and said he wanted to "draw in music" what Hartman had expressed on a canvas. The exhibition was up from February to March of 1874 and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition was completed in June of the same year.

Both Hartman and Mussorgsky’s works depict Russian culture at the time. Mussorgsky’s Pictures is saturated with folk music and culture, and innovative harmonic language. For these reasons, we cannot listen to his piece with traditional European ears. It won’t sound as technically or harmonically sophisticated as contemporary compositions, but the complex harmonic, contrapuntal, and formal procedures of European (especially German) music hold no ground here.

Vocal music was considered the purest form of music by the realists. Mingling with that school of thought, Mussorgsky concentrated on vocal music for much of his career and you can hear in his instrumental works how he’s trying to imitate the voice rather than explore the possibilities of the instrument. Consequently, Pictures is not very idiomatic to the piano. While pianos were on a consistent rise in popularity in Europe as they became more affordable and sheet music more accessible, all keyboard instruments were shunned by composers expressing the nationalistic feelings of Russia.

Pictures at an Exhibition is a collection of short pieces that are free from any formal structure, taking you on a journey through Russia using Hartman’s eyes and Mussorgsky’s ears. This piece combined in concert with the structured, Germanic sonatas of Beethoven will be stunning. Come to Merrill to hear Freddy Kempf. Find out what all the hype at the Tchaikovsky Competition was about.

Becca DeWan can be reached at beccadewan@mac.com

Freddy Kempf plays Merrill Auditorium, in Portland, on Wednesday, Nov. 17. Call (207) 842-0800.