This second volume of Feldman's piano works is like the first: based on the idea of aesthetic development rather than the pursuit of a chronological or complete presentation of the composer's works written for that instrument. Interestingly enough, however, is the fact that all but one of the pieces here are from the 1950s, when the artist was obsessed with the subtle timbres in the piano's range of expression. Each work from the re-recording of "Intermission V" which appeared on the first volume, through the four "Last Pieces" in 1959, "Piano Piece," 1952, "Two Intermissions," from 1950 and 1953's "Intermission VI", reveals a different part of the mysterious puzzle Feldman was working on. Tension, timbre, color, nuance, harmonic interval, and the idea that whatever could possibly be called melody in these pieces could only evolve from the silences between the notes; all were being developed during this period. During this time, Feldman was using a kind of notiation that allowed for structured silences, some so subtle they didn't even register on the page. This leaves a lot to the discretion and judiciousness of the performer. Steffen Schleiermacher, like many of the Europeans that have discovered a kindred spirit in Feldman since his passing, proves this point. Often his durations and extensions of silence are erratic, notes are held longer than others, and a score is read differently from the one just preceding it. This is especially true in "Two Intermissions." The second of the pair is played without artifice or intent, executed with transparency where the first seems almost forced in its tension, as if he were fighting the piece instead of playing it or letting it play him. The final work here, the 36-minute "Five Pianos" is another thing entirely. Here the notation is precise; Feldman had long since ceased giving control of the score to the performer. This work, the beginning of his larger scale compositions, is stunning in its ability to pare down even the slightest of timbres to their essential ordered silences and pass them through the prism of another piano's timbres involved in the same process until all five are engaged in the act while space between them abounds. That the work can be played at all is a miracle; that it is performed here with such precision and care is a tribute to the inherent humanity and grace in Feldman's music. Each player loses himself in the score, and as a result in its lines finds himself anew, altered by silence and its relationships to sound and its organization. This is fine second addition to the Hat catalogue of Feldman works. Thom Jurek Tracklist + Credits :
sexta-feira, 20 de outubro de 2023
MORTON FELDMAN : Works for Piano 2 (Steffen Schleiermacher, Isabel Mundry, Mats Persson, Kristine Scholz, Nils Vigeland) (1990) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless
sábado, 30 de setembro de 2023
quarta-feira, 13 de setembro de 2023
MORTON FELDMAN : The Late Piano Works, Vol. 1 – Triadic Memories (Steffen Schleiermacher) (2008) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless
Triadic
Memories is one of Morton Feldman's most popular and frequently
performed works for piano. Here, more than is usual in his music,
Feldman uses the repetition of patterns and gestures. The repetitions
are rarely exact -- they are characterized by very subtle rhythmic
variations -- but almost every gesture, whether large or small, is
repeated a few or many times. The repeated figures, while all being
quiet and relatively simple and brief, vary in their length, structure,
and texture. The unpredictability of the number of repetitions, the
asymmetry of the repeated figures, the avoidance of a regular pulse, and
the subtlety with which Feldman alters the repetitions keep the music
continually intriguing for the attentive listener. Because of its use of
discernible repeating patterns, Triadic Memories may be the Feldman
work that's closest to the popular understanding of minimalism, although
the music sounds absolutely nothing like that of Glass or Reich or
Riley. While Triadic Memories is more eventful than much of Feldman's
work, its quiet, isolated but related events occurring in a vast
temporal landscape create an effect of unhurried serenity that's a
trademark of the composer's.
The composer gives the pianist considerable leeway in determining the
tempo, to the extent that the recorded performances have durations
ranging from 74 minutes (Jean-Luc Fafchamps on Sub Rosa) to two hours
and four minutes (Sabine Liebner on Oehms Classics). Clocking in at 80
minutes, Steffen Schleiermacher's interpretation is among the more
expeditious. His reading is thoughtful and carefully considered, with
each note placed with sensitivity in relation to its neighbors.
Schleiermacher's reading is wonderfully fluid, and the speed at which he
plays creates an organic sense of wave-like motion. It's intriguing to
imagine how a very slow performance would come off, but Schleiermacher's
is a fully persuasive version of a piece that could have a number of
very different but valid interpretations. MGD's natural, unprocessed
sound is, as is typical for the label, immaculate and vivid. Stephen Eddins Tracklist + Credits :
MORTON FELDMAN : The Late Piano Works, Vol. 3 – Piano • Palais De Mari (Steffen Schleiermacher) (2009) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless
Along with slowly cycling gestures, haunting sonorities, and soft
dynamics, the late piano works of Morton Feldman are usually noteworthy
for their extreme length. The compositions on the first two volumes of
Steffen Schleiermacher's series for MDG, Triadic Memories (timed at
80:44) and For Bunita Marcus (71:48), fall into this category of music
on a vast scale. In contrast to them, the two pieces on the third
volume, Piano (31:57), and Palais de Mari (22:49), are fairly short for
Feldman, and listeners who want to explore his keyboard music in a
somewhat more manageable timeframe may choose to start with them. The
same spaciousness and quietude of the other works can be found here, and
Schleiermacher's sensitivity and control assure that the rarefied moods
and delicate sounds are evenly handled throughout both pieces. Thanks
to the unprocessed and fully natural audio signal, all of the nuances of
Schleiermacher's touch are captured, yet there is also a slight
background sound that apparently comes from the performance space, not
from any defect in the all-digital recording. Listeners may find that
this is only a mild distraction and easy to get past once the music
takes hold. This important series is recommended for all Feldman
aficionados and anyone interested in the sublime expressions of his late
period. Blair Sanderson Tracklist + Credits :
sexta-feira, 1 de maio de 2020
JOHN CAGE : Complete Piano Music Vol. 9 (Etudes Australes) 2002 / 3CD / FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless
A primary tenet in John Cage's philosophy lay in his desire to disengage his ego from the process of composition, and many of his works demonstrate his ingenuity in devising means of accomplishing that goal. In his Études australes, and in several other works from the 1970s, he lay starmaps over staff paper and let the location of stars and their relative spatial relationships determine pitches and their relative temporal relationships. The wide placement of the pitches over the keyboard makes it a work that does not fall easily under the fingers under any circumstances, but Cage's instructions make it even more demanding: the score is written on four staves, the top two (approximately the top half of the keyboard) for the right hand, and the bottom two staves (approximately the bottom half of the keyboard) for the left, with the stipulation that the hands not "help" each other by switching to each other's staves for especially wide leaps. That requirement makes it a piece of ferocious difficulty, an element that's not captured by an audio recording in which the listener cannot see the athleticism and virtuosity that's required to pull it off.