Tones & Colors

Album review

The question of the relationship between music and visual art that is contemporary with it is a complex one, and one that can hardly be answered with a single album. American pianist Liza Stepanova wisely does not attempt to do so on this release on a new label operated by the Concert Artists Guild agency, which promotes the talents of young musicians. Instead, she offers pieces that are connected with specific works of visual art in some way: inspired by them, specifically representing them in music, or more loosely connected with them. The variety is to the good: Stepanova draws on four general themes: A Spanish Room (relating to works by Goya and Velázquez), Nature and Impressionism (beginning with Fanny Hensel, Felix Mendelssohn's sister, and offering two more pieces that elaborate the theme), Conversations Across Time (with works that go both ways, Bach pieces that inspired artworks, and vice-versa), and Wagner, Infinity, and an Encore (a mixed bag, but one that works well to suggest the possibilities. Sample the final Watteau: Paysage No. 8 of Leopold Godowsky, which is interesting precisely because Godowsky is not a composer you would likely associate with Watteau. Stepanova's playing is clean and flexible enough throughout to accommodate the variety of genres and styles on the program, which she has played in museum recitals. Other pianists, with the use of large projections, might profitably achieve the same thing, and do better with the reproductions of the paintings than the ones in the booklet to the CD version of this release: the design is poor, with the print so close to the edges that it looks as though it has been cut off. However, those interested in cross-medium experiments will find this an enjoyable one.
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