I have the Kronos Quartet performance of Piano and String Quartet, and the Hildegard Kleeb performance of For Bunito Marcos. Been a while since I listened to either, but both are worth investigation if yer into lengthy minimimalism. --Geoff
Nice touch with the Guston painting as the cover art. Sorry to bother you. But do you mean you have the Kronos performance recording in their own set, or in a Feldman only set?
No bother. I was referring to the 10-CD Kronos set. Feldman needs his own box. There are a couple of labels that could put together nice sets.
A box set from Mode would be incredible, I just sent them an email expressing interest though I doubt it would ever happen. My heavy listening this week was String Quartet and Orchestra, the one on Hat Hut with Pellegrini Quartet. Will be listening to the one from Arditti next. Hurwitz has a new video on Feldman which I haven't viewed yet.
For Feldman newbies I recommend "Coptic Light" (just 25-30 minutes orchestral work, extremely lush and beautiful) or "For Bunita Marcus" (solo piano, about an hour, Marc-Andre Hamelin's recording is gorgeous. Coptic Light - Bunita - https://youtu.be/wQjXWcO7aRo
Here's the video. Since he has trashed "acquired taste" music in the past (e.g., Messiaen's organ music) I'm somewhat surprised that he has good things to say about Feldman. I think he should have noted Philip Thomas's recent comprehensive Feldman piano box. Maybe he doesn't like it. I would be surprised if he doesn't know about it. I think it is a superb collection.
Thanks for the link. I will check it out. Love this picture of Thomas from the site. If I ever change my avatar, I'll give it strong consideration.
I am really surprised he likes Feldman as well. He also trashed Boulez, one of my favorite 20th century composers I'm a huge fan of that Philip Thomas box, same with the Feldman disc of works scored for two pianos from John Tilbury and Philip Thomas. I'll mention it to him, Another Timbre deserve all the praise they can get! I hope they record more John Cage and Feldman. Another bonus besides the music being so good, is the recording quality sounds spooky real on good speakers.
Hurwitz is obviously well-listened and his knowledge is encyclopedic, but in the end he's just a critic and his opinions are his own. For example he thinks Igor Levit's Beethoven sets a new modern standard, whereas I and many of my colleagues can't stand Levit's playing. His new recording of Shostakovich op. 87 is bloody awful!
I don't think Hurwitz has any strong opinions on solo keyboard music or is all that knowledgeable about it, he seems to just defer to Jed Distler. I will take up any excuse to talk about Beethoven Piano Sonata cycles! What are your favorites? My top tier are in order Andrea Lucchesini, Annie Fischer, Wilhelm Backhaus mono, Rudolf Serkin. Followed by Schnabel, Claudio Arrau 1960s Philips, Russell Sherman and Eric Heidsieck. I thought Levit's Beethoven cycle was middle of the road, with the incredible competition here, we can do better than that, and the praise for this slips by me as well. My gut feeling is I see a lot more praise for this from professional critics than non-professionals that might be more passionately invested in this music rather than just looking for the next new thing to rave about. Who do you like in Op. 87? I was meaning to give a more serious listen to Levit (only managed to get up to P&F 8) as this is one of my favorites in the piano repertoire. I think every cycle is uneven, among the better ones I have heard are Scherbakov, Melnikov, Jenny Lin, Dmitri Petrushansky and Ashkenazy. I find Nikolayeva is another that gets a bit too much praise for that mystical Shostakovich connection, her very earliest recording is pretty good but only available in a terrible sounding reissue with NR.
Thanks very much, I thought that might be the case. In terms of a Feldman only collection, personally I would love one, but I'm sure due to length and profit, it might be hard.
Another Timbre performing Number Pieces, I presume is the recorded set. My local station (The Sound Barrier 3PBS FM) just recently interviewed a member from the group on the recording of the project whilst playing a handful of pieces, but I'm not sure if there's a podcast sadly. As said above, it's from Apartment House, and the booklet itself is a hefty read so I'd say it's a project that they care about making.
Interesting chronology with Feldman & Guston: close friends for decades; irreparable rift in 1970 when Feldman is unsupportive of Guston's radical shift from abstraction back to figurative art; Guston paints Friend - To M.F. in 1978; Guston dies 1980; Feldman composes Three Voices in 1982, an homage to Guston and poet Frank O'Hara (1926-66); Feldman composes For Philip Guston in 1984; Feldman dies 1987; Guston's painting shows up on Feldman recordings including Only (1996) and For Philip Guston (2000), and the 2004 book Give My Regards To Eighth Street - The Collected Writings Of Morton Feldman. One wonders what Feldman would have made of that last part: Guston's painting was in the figurative style that led to their 1970 estrangement...
Just making it clearer as I read this in the morning. It's Apartment House performing Number Pieces (John Cage), which was released by Another Timbre. Sorry if it wasn't clear enough. Sounds great from what I've heard.
Very interesting. I would've thought there was more than just Guston taking a different creative path that ended their friendship. Curious why they would use the figurative paintings on Feldman's work when it was made known that he opposed that style.
For Philip Guston is an excellent piece. I've listened to the California EAR Unit version (left) and sampled a bit of the Hat Hut label version (right) earlier today. Both are quite good. I think if someone were to assemble a Feldman box, I'd prefer it be Hat Hut.
Not sure which label I'd like to do a Feldman set, if I had a preference. Bridge Records stands out due to the 1999 Crippled Symmetry release. But I haven't sampled too many other labels; mostly just indulged in the full recordings of a small handful of important works.
Anybody read, and/or have any sentiments about "Vertucal Thoughts: Morton Feldman and the Visual Arts"?
Anyone have thoughts regarding this version versus the 2006 recording by the same duo Morgan/Tilbury? The sound fragment over here tells me I need a version of "For John Cage" and I'm trying to make up my mind which one. I guess I can't go wrong with either of these...
