Writing a piece of music inspired by a painting can’t be a one-to-one process of translation. The composer Timo Andres looks to Mussorgsky’s evocative “Pictures at an Exhibition,” or to Morton Feldman’s “Rothko Chapel,” which Mr. Andres says is “a much more lively experience than the paintings themselves.”
Add “Upstate Obscura,” a new cello concerto by Mr. Andres that has its premiere on Saturday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of its exhibition “Visitors to Versailles (1682-1789),” to the list of musical works with a clear visual counterpart.
His piece, which features the cellist Inbal Segev performing with the Metropolis Ensemble, is based on John Vanderlyn’s “Panoramic View of the Palace and Gardens of Versailles” (1818-19), a massive painting on nearly 2,000 square feet of canvas that requires its own circular gallery in the Met’s American Wing.