Search - Thomas Oboe Lee, Hirsch-Pinkas Piano Duo, Sally Pinkas :: Thomas Oboe Lee: The Visconti- Sforza Tarot Cards and Other Works

Piano music

Charles Schwager | Sudbury, MA USA | 06/09/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When I read the cover of Tom Lee's CD and saw the title, The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards, for two pianos, I thought immediately of the great piano duo pieces of the 19th century. What I got was something more akin to Bach's or Shostakovich's piano works - a series of pieces that have the feeling of belonging to a whole, yet are all different. Lee's rhythmic facility is impressive and he gives the listener a whole range of jazz inflected dance rhythms while teasing the ear with some great melodies.



I first listened to this CD about 8 months ago and recently pulled it off the shelf to listen again. I have now listened 3 times through and each time I found my "favorite" piece to be a different one. With some pieces my foot taps to the music and with other pieces it stops and my whole body becomes relaxed into a meditative state. For now my favorite is the 3rd Tarot Card piece - the brewing of a magic potion. I will tell you that the witch making this brew yearns for a human lover and I am tempted to go to her; at least, that is what my ear tells me when I am entranced in the piece.



The Tarot Card pieces are like a box of chocolate candy - a new delight with each piece.



The other piece on the disc is a selection from a set of piano pieces for a single pianist and takes an interesting tack. Every composer in the 21st century has to be influenced to a greater or lesser extent by Schoenberg. Lee is too much a melodist to have gone down the tone row road; however, in this set of variations we hear him playing around with what only a post-Schoenberg composer could do - take piano pieces (he calls them Fireflies) and show us how Chopin might have reacted to Schoenberg (in his notes, Lee says he was immersed in both Schoenberg's Five Piano Pieces and Chopin's preludes when he wrote these pieces).



In sum, if you are devotee of piano music, jazz and contemporary classical music that is actually melodic, this CD will reward your repeated listenings."