The Magritte Collection

Everyone is familiar with the ‘typical’ Magritte paintings: surreal skies filled with bowler-hatted men; a green apple filling an entire room… but I’m finding that with time, I’m increasingly fascinated with lesser-known works of the artist – and intrigued by their titles. I found out that over 170 of Magritte’s paintings were given their titles by the surrealist poet Louis Scutenaire. Magritte would invite Scutenaire over on Sundays and ask him to think up titles for his latest paintings. As Scutenaire was later awarded the Grand Prix de l’Humour noir (The Grand Prize in Black Humour) I imagine the poet and the artist having a lot of wicked fun, thinking up the sometimes totally absurd titles. I found myself imagining the music expressed by “The Key of Dreams” or “Hunters at the Edge of Night”, having no reference at all to the paintings bearing those titles. So this is what the present collection is: imaginative realisations of some of Magritte’s titles – which are not under copyright, as opposed to his paintings.”The Magritte Collection is an excellent example of modern material for recitals or simply for enjoying and discovering the expressive possibilities of the piano” - Professional Piano The pieces are roughly Grade 5-6, Late intermediate-Early Advanced