The claims of the Naxos Art and Music series are modest ones; the series "presents the composers active during the lives of the leading painters and sculptors, setting a musical context to their work." For someone who lived a fairly long life, such as painter Paul Cézanne, that doesn't narrow things down much. What the listener gets on this disc is a half century of French music of various kinds from the Naxos catalog, some of it (Duparc, Chabrier, Debussy) certainly relevant to Cézanne's nature-worshipping yet geometrical ...
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The claims of the Naxos Art and Music series are modest ones; the series "presents the composers active during the lives of the leading painters and sculptors, setting a musical context to their work." For someone who lived a fairly long life, such as painter Paul Cézanne, that doesn't narrow things down much. What the listener gets on this disc is a half century of French music of various kinds from the Naxos catalog, some of it (Duparc, Chabrier, Debussy) certainly relevant to Cézanne's nature-worshipping yet geometrical art, and some of it (Louis Vierne) certainly less so. The booklet attempts to relate music and art only in the most general way, but its selection of color prints is generous (the only design irritant is the ugly set of all-caps composer names on the front cover). The program, even if unified only by French nationality, has attractive features, including the sensitive trio of Duparc songs by tenor Paul Groves and pianist Roger Vignoles, and the comparatively rare Piano Quartet in F...
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