Thomas Oboe Lee's The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards, Op. 66 (1996), is a collection of 22 eclectic miniatures -- or as the composer calls them, "salon pieces" -- for two pianos. Based on the Major Arcana cards of the Tarot deck (the Visconti-Sforza is a hand-painted set from the fifteenth century), as well as some personal numerological associations, and incorporating various influences of composers ranging from Chopin to Messiaen, this 42-minute work sounds like an enormous encyclopedia of pianistic gestures and genres; and ...
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Thomas Oboe Lee's The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards, Op. 66 (1996), is a collection of 22 eclectic miniatures -- or as the composer calls them, "salon pieces" -- for two pianos. Based on the Major Arcana cards of the Tarot deck (the Visconti-Sforza is a hand-painted set from the fifteenth century), as well as some personal numerological associations, and incorporating various influences of composers ranging from Chopin to Messiaen, this 42-minute work sounds like an enormous encyclopedia of pianistic gestures and genres; and Lee seems almost too facile and greedy in his appropriation of historical styles to settle on an identifiable language of his own. Some may enjoy these pastiches in passing, without delving too deeply into the pseudo-occult program, or without questioning Lee's artistic principles and aesthetic choices. But others may wonder if the Tarot framework is really necessary, since the music is only weakly depictive and rather obscure and abstract, when it is not blatantly derivative; and...
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