A glance at this CD might lead the buyer to classify it with a number of rather soft releases that rely on the popularity of famous artworks to sell music that the compilers have vaguely associated with them. The Impressionist work of art featured here, Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party, is a famous one, all right, with its remarkably subtle rendering of no fewer than 14 individuals as they relax, drink, talk, and, unmistakably, flirt during a pause in a pleasant weekend outing. But the music on the disc is a good ...
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A glance at this CD might lead the buyer to classify it with a number of rather soft releases that rely on the popularity of famous artworks to sell music that the compilers have vaguely associated with them. The Impressionist work of art featured here, Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party, is a famous one, all right, with its remarkably subtle rendering of no fewer than 14 individuals as they relax, drink, talk, and, unmistakably, flirt during a pause in a pleasant weekend outing. But the music on the disc is a good deal more ambitious than the norm, and the painting's owner, the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, deserves major kudos for trying something that is both new and yet, one suspects, would have been intelligible to an audience of Renoir's time: the owner has commissioned a work, Renoir's Feast, specifically concerned with the Renoir painting. The work's American composer (and piano soloist), Haskell Small, has produced music that's notable for its detailed engagement with the...
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