Morton FELDMAN (1926-1987)
Complete Violin/Viola and Piano Works
Christina Fong (violin, viola)
Paul Hersey (piano)
rec. 2003, recording dates and venues not given
OGREOGRESS PRODUCTIONS no number [58:36 + 70:00]
This release was reviewed by David Blomenberg back in
2006, but resurfaces on these pages now as the result of an oversight.
I recently reviewed
Erik Carlson and Aleck Karis’s recording of Morton Feldman’s
For John Cage on the Bridge label, and Glenn Freeman of OgreOgress
records quite rightly pointed out that I had neglected to include Christina
Fong and Paul Hersey’s recording by way of a comparison, one that
has been critically claimed as ‘the best available’ elsewhere.
We reviewers rarely get to be heroes going around righting wrongs, but
in this case it was a question of getting hold of a copy of the OgreOgress
recording and bringing some attention back to this highly desirable
collection.
Feldman’s complete violin/viola with piano works are presented
here almost in chronological order, starting out with an ambitious but
relatively student work, the Sonata. This is full of hints
of Bartók and Hindemith, flexing the young composer’s neo-classical
style to the full and revealing a clear talent with a secure and confident
technical grounding. Piece, another early work, takes us firmly
into atonal avant-garde territory, brushing up against Webern in its
pointillist transparency and sparseness. The Projection series
was Feldman’s first foray into graphic notation, with a great
deal of choice in terms of pitches left to the musicians. This is another
level of abstraction, but also a relinquishing of control that Feldman
took back with Extensions, in which specific notes are brought
back into the composing process. There are superficial similarities
in the impressions given by both these pieces here, but you can hear
chords and intervals in the piano that have more of a Feldman flavour
with Extensions I, which is in a fast tempo and not without
intensity.
Vertical Thoughts 2 is perhaps the first work here that you
would recognise as more typical Feldman on a blind hearing. Silence
takes on a more significant role, and while there is freedom in the
coordination between the players this is not the feeling you get from
this performance, where momentary moods coincide more often than they
diverge in terms of ensemble. There is quite a change in recorded perspective
between the previous works and The Viola in my Life 3, moving
from fairly close to a sound surrounded by a halo of resonance. Glenn
Freeman of OgreOgress records has informed me that the contrast between
a dry chamber music hall and a huge basilica was a deliberate attempt
to make the extreme change in Feldman’s style very noticeable
between his student/Cage/Webern period and the later minimalist style.
The Viola in my Life is part of a sequence of works written
for the viola playing of Karen Phillips, a collaboration that also resulted
in the beautiful viola part in Rothko Chapel. The Viola
in my Life has four movements, of which the third is the only one
with piano alone. Hearing it here does indeed make for “one of
Feldman’s most exquisite miniatures.” The penultimate work
on the first disc is Spring of Chosroes, named after a mythical
carpet, relating to Feldman’s fixation on the patterns in oriental
rugs. The musical material is pared down here even further, creating
atmosphere with fewer notes, longer periods of repetition and increasing
subtlety of variation. This is classic Feldman, creating a timeless
space in which musical expression becomes a totally immersive experience.
Composition for solo violin has a strong connection with Violin
and String Quartet, being similar in character to the latter’s
violin part. These are Feldman’s variations and repetitions taken
into rarefied worlds shared by Bach and others, and with its stately
double-stopping and counterpoint this is a Feldman ‘Sarabande’
par excellence.
Disc 2 has two works in entirely different proportions. For Aaron
Copland is a lonely sounding piece for solo violin, here not leaning
on double-stop techniques, but on pure single notes and intervals. There
is indeed a haunted feel to this short work, and as David Blomenberg
says, it is “top notch Feldman” for all its brevity.
And so to For John Cage. The difference in recorded perspective
between this and the Bridge recording could hardly be wider, with the
latter’s dry acoustic making the music into something intimate
as well as vast, the huge resonance for Fong and Hersey adding an almost
surreal spatial dimension to the sonorities. Christina Fong actually
uses vibrato occasionally, which in my experience is rare in this music
but adds a surprising expressive extra to her palette. In terms of performance
I would say the honours are about equal between these two recordings,
with sensitivity of touch and timbre in evidence from all concerned.
At roughly 5 minutes shorter there is a bit more urgency in Fong/Hersey’s
‘wide awake’ traversal of this score, but not so much as
to leave us feeling short changed. In any case there is a meditative
extra layer in that acoustic environment which makes the performers
sound as if they are in the middle of a huge, abandoned factory. I have
to admit to being a sucker for this sort of resonance, and you can’t
say that it hides details in the playing – especially not in the
violin part.
In the end this is a collection that has to be considered as a whole,
and as a complete collection of Morton Feldman’s violin/viola
music with piano it has an intrinsic value that goes beyond any one
work. The recordings of the earlier works on CD 1 use what sounds as
if it might be a rather elderly piano with a slightly twangy character,
but the performances all work well enough. There are one or ‘gravelly’
moments in the piano sound, for instance at 1:07 into Vertical Thoughts
2, but this is a minor point. Presentation is on the flimsy side,
with each disc clinging onto rubbery studs affixed to a none too sturdy
foldout card which also carries a booklet note that starts out well
enough but ultimately collapses into effusive subjectivity. Track numbers
printed on the back would also have been useful. When it comes to competition
in terms of ‘complete’ editions there is a 2 CD set on the
Mode label performed by Stephen Clarke and Marc Sabat, but this has
neither the Sonata nor For Aaron Copeland, and it
splits its 81:56 performance of For John Cage over the two
discs. I also find the playing rather abstracted and uninvolving, sticking
to a medium-soft dynamic for the most part and lacking in the detailed
contrasts found with Fong and Hersey.
All in all then, I would say get this set while you can: it’s
a limited edition, so won’t be around for ever!
Dominy Clements
Previous review: David
Blomenberg
Contents
[Sonata] for Violin and Piano (1945) [14:01]
Piece (1950) [1:49]
Projection 4 (1951) [4:41]
Extensions 1 (1951) [5:00]
Vertical Thoughts 2 (1963) [4:07]
The Viola in My Life 3 (1970) [4:33]
Spring of Chosroes (1977) [13:13]
[Composition] (1984) [10:47]
For Aaron Copland (1981) [4:00]
For John Cage (1982) [66:00]
