Reviews and occasional notes on classical music

Reviews and occasional notes on classical music

"Music, both vocall and instrumental, so good, so delectable, so rare, so admirable, so super excellent, that it did even ravish and stupifie all those strangers that never heard the like." - Thomas Coryat, after hearing 3 hours of music at the Scuola di San Rocco in Venice, 1608.

Friday, January 6, 2017

Illuminating paintings with music


This is a sampler disc of recent pieces from the ATMA Classique catalogue, with a twist, which is due on February 10, 2017. In a partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal sixteen tracks were chosen to illuminate paintings chosen to represent the international collection in this excellent art gallery. Here is The Annunciation by Bernat Martorell:


and the commentary from the liner booklet:


The John Dunstable piece chosen to go with the Martorell is Quam pulchra es, from the 2008 CD Canticum Canticorum by Les Voix Baroques:


This project shows the wide variety of music in the ATMA catalogue: from Renaissance masters through Chopin to Piazzolla, and the great depth of top quality paintings in the Fine Art Museum's collection. The ATMA artists are impressive; they include Les Boreades, Quatour Franz Joseph, l'Orchestre Métropolitain under Yannick Nézet-Séguin and many others. I was surprised at first that there were no Canadian paintings chosen, but I suppose the Museum wanted to focus on their international collection, which is impressive. This is an excellent project that will reward focussed listening and viewing.

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