[November 20, 2009] Art + music = an entirely new work Tweet Nov 20, 2009 (Houston Chronicle - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Warning: A piano was harmed in the making of this film. It was taken to a shipyard in Norway and flooded with water as the video rolled. World famous pianist Leif Ove Andsnes didn't even blink. "It wasn't like seeing a brand-new Steinway being killed," Andsnes said last week in a telephone interview from New York City. "I didn't really have a problem with that. I found it rather haunting and beautiful." The scene is the finale of a multimedia collaboration between Andsnes and South Africa artist Robin Rhode. The piece, Pictures Reframed, pairs Rhodes' video of moving and still images with Andsnes' live performance of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. The Norwegian pianist brings Pictures Reframed to Houston Sunday in a recital that also includes works by Robert Schumann's Kinderszenen and a new composition by Thomas Larcher. Mussorgsky's beloved work for piano was based on a series of paintings by Viktor Hartmann that the composer saw at an exhibition in the early 1870s. Rhodes' creation is a 21st-century update of the art work that inspired the music. Andsnes' goal was to reconnect the piece to its roots, but he wanted to add contemporary artistic tools such as video. By matching the music and art, Andsnes and Rhodes aimed to create an entirely new work. "We are hoping that by combining these two art forms we can transcend something," Andsnes said. Not that the piece requires transcending, he said. "The music doesn't need this project," Andsnes said. "This is one of the greatest pieces of all times, and I love to play it without anything to accompany it." Andsnes' idea for the piece was inspired by conversations he had over the years with organizers at New York City's Lincoln Center, where the work was premiered last Friday. With the idea developed, he then looked for an artist to work with and found Rhodes, a native South African who lives in Berlin. The two did not know each other before work began on the project about two years ago. The two did not know each other before work began on the project about two years ago. "Fortunately, I discovered that he likes dialogue and me having reactions and feedback," Andsnes said. The video of the flooded piano, Drowning Piano,accompanies the final movement, the famous and majestic Great Gate of Kiev. The movement showcases the instrument at the height of its musical glory, while at the same time a piano is destroyed on the screen. "We are sacrificing it for something new," Andsnes said. "In a way, it became symbolic for the whole project." The destroyed piano is the same one that Andsnes had transported to the top of a mountain for a performance of Edvard Grieg, so it was a little banged-up before it was flooded, Andsnes said. After it dried out, Rhode painted it, and now it sits on display at a Norwegian radio station, Andsnes said. "I think it has probably much more worth now than before," he said. [email protected] To see more of the Houston Chronicle, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.HoustonChronicle.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Houston Chronicle Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]