Glad to see this thread still percolating - thanks for the thoughtful discussion. Nothing new to offer this morning!
Very much agreed! I have known (and loved) Feldman's music since the mid/late nineties but never owned many of his recordings. Essentially I bought all that I could find in local shops back in the days, which wasn’t much—at least as far as quantity is concerned: quality is definitely not an issue here, since it accounts these gems: Hat Art’s For Philip Guston and Neither, and this Rothko Chapel. This thread reminded me that I should look further into his catalogue. Glad I am doing that now! I recently found Philip Thomas's Piano set in the mailbox (what a work of beauty that is...) and now his Two Pianos and Other Pieces with John Tilbury is on the way. Good times. Great thread.
I am a fan of much of his music. I quite like: Coptic Light (1986), Atlantis (1959), Piano and Orchestra (1975), Piano and string quartet, Structures for Orchestra, and others. I like quite a bit of Violin and Orchestra, but at 52 minutes, it overstays its welcome a bit. I am glad this thread popped up, so I can explore more of his music this weekend.
Do you have a link for this or the artwork for it? IMHO more so than any other composer I've heard Feldman's recordings are usually more hit than they are miss. I guess if you decide to record Feldman you have a real understanding of the music. So I generally try and find the best recording quality as I find specifically with Feldman the better the recording the more I'm drawn into his sound world. And the other thing is I find many of my favorite Feldman performances are actually ones that are in print opposed to out of print. The only two I've heard are the one you quoted and the recording on Hat Hut.
John Tilbury All Piano link - Morton Feldman - John Tilbury – All Piano (1999, CD) It's not totally unavailable. You can get a scratched copy for $130 at Discogs! I've seen it available for download via Tilbury's site, but it appears as though you have to piece it together (if that's even possible), and other sites, the legitimacy of which are questionable. Also, I'd agree most (if not all) Feldman is performed well. One either puts the effort in or doesn't even try going there in the first place. Often it's just a matter of pacing (e.g., SQ2).
If you scroll down on discogs, someone mentions in the comments that around a thousand copies are still available from Austria, at 30 EUR each. I have no idea if this is correct, but it might be worth figuring out... Though, given the website of this Gallerie St. Barbara states "myspace - coming soon", it's probably safe not to expect a quick response.
It appears that this Gallerie St. Barbara is where LondonHALL is located, so the claim seems to be that the record label (now inactive?) still has some stock lying around. Perhaps it's worth giving the address info AT londonhall.com a try?
I barely know his work but will keep it in mind as I continue my exploration of 20th Century composers. Checked my collection and I have a grand total of 11 minutes of his music; two short pieces with chorus in a Sony 20th Century box
Thanks for the link. Agreed about SQ2, the fact that we have two recordings is sort of amazing! I really want to see this live I think all the music is on the Another Timbre box (one of my truly essential Feldman releases) but what the heck I'll try and contact them. edit: would anyone be interested in a thread on Cage's Number Pieces? I've been listening to these over the last few months. I find them more interesting than Cage's earlier music that was influenced by Satie.
Certainly Tilbury’s collection is not essential in light of the availability of Thomas’ and the work of others. But for a reasonable price I’d buy it and drive it around the block a few times for comparison. If someone were sitting on 1000 or even 100 copies, I’d would think he or she or it would try to sell them. Prices for Feldman CDs are consistently high. There’s an underserved market and it shows. I’m not that interested in Cage or much other minimalist piano music, but that could change. There’s a series of minimalist piano collections from Brilliant Classics (I think) but they seem to be haphazardly assembled.
I dug around a bit and see some indications some Tilbury-Feldman CDs are being sold through a related site called Fondazione Atopos, but I don’t think they are recordings related to the All Piano box, which is merely mentioned in the descriptions of the two other Feldman CDs being sold. If any of these seemingly related sites are selling the All Piano collection, they certainly are keeping it a secret. EDIT - Not exactly a stellar review of one of the sets being sold at the site noted above - FELDMAN For Philip Guston . It’s a live recording and apparently it shows. For me, Feldman must be recorded in a quiet studio sans heavy breathing and chair squeaking and the like.
I love Cage's Number Pieces! Certainly at the top of my list of his music. And they feel somewhat related to Feldman's work to me. As if they inhabit similar places...
Comparing durations, there seems to be quite a difference between some of the earlier works, which is probably not surprising since the more indeterminate nature of the scores. For instance, Tilbury's Last Pieces is about 10 minutes long while Thomas's is more than 23 minutes. Given how Thomas's box instantly made me fall in love with Feldman's piano works, I can see myself going for 'doubles' at some point. But for now I'll content myself with what I have, and with the expectation of the Two Pianos album, which should arrive in a few days.
That is how I feel as well, I'm certainly never going to pay $130 for it, but if there is some retailer that has the real thing at a more retail like price I'd bite. Alright cool, anyone else feel free to start the thread as well. I'll try and collect some thoughts and Youtube links if someone else doesn't do it before me. Two2 is what really got me into them, I find this album stunning: Still remains my favorite of all the Number Pieces. If you told me this was a Feldman composition I would have believed it! Like there is hints of For Bunita Marcus in it, probably why I like it so much.
A Minimalist Composer or Minimalist Classical Music or Minimalist Piano thread might have longer legs. I used to have the two Cage "prepared piano" CDs pictured below (library copies) and, ironically or coincidentally, decided to eliminate them from my collection during one of my minimization binges. The "prepared piano" concept is a curiosity, but nothing beyond that for me.
I am not a fan of his vocal works. He might be at his best with a handful of instruments playing off each other (though I like his solo piano). I wouldn't know how to even begin to suggest how one should approach his oeuvre. (I'll use any excuse to squeeze that word into a post.) What originally intrigued me was my interest in string quartets and finding out his second string quartet ran 5-6 hours (depending on who is playing it). WTF! This I've got to hear, I thought.
I have been eying this one, but up to now I held back since I own two versions of Two2 already (Double Edge's and Josef Christof's and Steffen Schleiermacher's). The obviously much slower pace (taking over a 140 minutes compared to 33 and 46 for the other two!) will probably win me over at some point, though. (As will the fact that Philip Thomas is on this one...)
I enjoy Cage's prepared piano work, but nowhere as much as I love some of his later work, the Number Pieces in particular. They are at opposite ends of Cage's spectrum.
That's funny, my introduction to Feldman was very similar, with finding out that For Philip Guston ran for more than four hours, all in one single movement. My reaction was the same as yours.
As @thegreenchild says these are his earlier work. He was heavily influenced by Satie but the music doesn't sound much like Satie's. Many of the pieces I've heard are more quirky and also even sound like they have a rhythmic beat. I'm still a novice to this music and will listen to it some more. I have the complete solo piano box from Steffen Schleiermacher, fortunately it wasn't expensive. I wanted to do a thread specifically on the Number Pieces because the vast majority of the works wouldn't be minimalist piano. The pieces are named by first number being the composition number and the second number is the number of musicians required to perform the work, the late ones for instance can sound quite dense. Indeed it is significantly slower than any other version I heard via streaming. That was what drew me in to the almost Feldman-esque sound world. Palais de Mari might have been the first thing I heard but surprisingly it was String Quartet 2 that got me really into Feldman I wrote about it a bit here: Morton Feldman (1926-1987) Fortunately Mode have brought SQ2 on CD from Flux Quartet back in print. I did buy Ives' recording as well when I didn't think I'd ever be able to find an affordable copy of Flux Quartet's recording.
Anyone have Feldman's SQ2 by Ives on Hat Hut? I just listened to disc one and there seems to be a manufacturing defect at about 19:00 on track 4. This is the second time I've listened to the disc, but either I'm just noticing it now or it wasn't there before. I find both hard to believe, but maybe I noticed it and just forgot about it. After all, I only lose about one minute. Not a big deal, but I e-mailed Outhere Music (Hat Hut's owner, apparently) about it and the possibility of a replacement.
The digital copy I bought back in August have does have one loud crack at 19:04 on that track. Just in case anyone wants lossless files of both those looong HatHut Feldman's, both String Quartet II and For Philip Guston are $5.99 downloads at Qobuz. I have physical copies of the Mode and Bridge respectively which I visit rarely so digital seemed OK for the others for the price. Wondered what others thoughts of the new HatHut For John Cage are as I have been listening online lately. Had never heard one of the long versions before at 90 min. The right volume on this one is critical as sound almost seems grotesque beyond a certain level unless that's just online quality.
I wonder if the download has the same flaw. I had noticed flaws in the Spotify version, which was why I bought the CD version! Outhere responded quickly and said they’d look into it. The Qobuz downloads are a great deal for lossless. I recommend the Guston. I’ll look into it. I am hoping Mode will do a multichannel SACD version.
