Night in the Gallery
Cliff Eidelman’s “NIGHT IN THE GALLERY” coming to all digital store and streaming services January 11, 2019
I was thinking about new music to write while staring at a blank page of manuscript. I looked up at my bookshelf and noticed a book of paintings called “Treasures of the Louvre.” I love visuals and stories, I opened this book and started to stare at paintings such as Rembrandt’s “Bathsheba Bathing,” Watteau’s “Pierrot” formally known as “Gilles,” The Embarkation for the Island of Cythera,” Géricault’s “Mounted Officer of the Imperial Guard,” and Boucher’s “Diana Bathing.” I soon checked out other paintings from the museum including de La Tour’s “The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds” and other great works from galleries around the world. I imagined some of the characters from these paintings jumping right off the canvas and into life through music. Soon I stopped looking the paintings and just allowed the music to take me on its own journey. Other works that inspired me include Chagall’s “Branche” (The Branch) and “L’Acrobrate” (Acrobat) and Vernet’s “A Shipwreck in Stormy Seas” and set them against the music. Night in the Gallery is a four-movement chamber orchestra work.
— Cliff Eidelman
Recorded January 29, 2018 by Members of the London Symphony Orchestra with Michael McHale on piano at Abbey Road Studios.