Feldman: Piano and Orchestra

Day 302

Morton Feldman: Piano and Orchestra

Alan Feinberg

New World Symphony

Michael Tilson Thomas

Morton Feldman is another of those rather scary American academic composers. In his case he has a reputation for writing impossibly long music - his string quartet lasts anything between five and six hours. So I approached this music with some trepidation. But I needn’t have worried. This was a rather hauntingly beautiful piece of quietly undulating orchestral textures.  All sorts of interesting colours were revealed during the 30 minutes or so that the piece lasted. The only jarring moments with the occasional very loud short phrases or single chord which distrusted the gentleness of the musical dialogue. I can see why he included these but I think that on balance the peice would have been better without them.  As I say it was otherwise quite haunting.  So another example of music which was nothing like what I expected. But that it one of the points of this project - to explore parts of the repertoire that I hadn’t previously ventured into.  I still don’t think however that I am ready for a six-hour string quartet.