Today Morton Feldman would have celebrated his 90th anniversary. 30 years ago, he held a lecture at the 33rd International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt.
“We listen to Feldman listening. We hear what he hears…we watch him compose in real-time.”
This is going to be a CD not to miss – Ivan Ilić plays Morton Feldman:
Today Morton Feldman would have celebrated his 89th birthday.
As a small gift from our archives, here is an excerpt from his Darmstadt Lecture, which he held on 24 July 1986 at the 33rd International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt:
On 7 November, soloists of the ensemble intercontemporain present an evening with the music of Steve Reich and Morton Feldman. The concert takes place at the Amphithéâtre of the Cité de la musique, among the works performed will be Reich’s Music for Pieces of Wood, Violin Phase and Morton Feldman’s Why patterns?.
Dana Barak, Nils Kohler and Trio Catch will perform Morton Feldman’s 3 Clarinets, Cello and Piano tonight at the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music.
Find out more on the website of the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt.
Morton Feldman: 3 Clarinets, Cello and Piano
for 3 clarinets, violoncello and piano | 8'
12.08.2014, Orangerie; Dana Barak, Nils Kohler, cl; Trio Catch
to and fro in shadow from inner to outer shadow
from impenetrable self to impenetrable unself by way of neither
Morton Feldman’s Neither has recently been performed together with Samuel Beckett’s Footfalls at the Staatsoper Berlin.
Watch director Katie Mitchell talk about how the composer and the novelist and playwright met at the Schiller-Theater in Berlin in the 1970s, how Beckett said that he hates opera (“Mr Feldman, I don't like opera.” […] “I don't blame you!”), how Feldman fell over in the Schiller-Theater and how Neither came into existence:
Read a (German) review of the production on nmz online.
Andrew Clements of The Guardian has reviewed Mode’s new release of a CD and DVD box set of Morton Feldman’s String Quartet No. 1, the Three Pieces, and Structures, all recorded by the FLUX Quartet.
Read the full review on The Guardian.
Excerpt from the liner notes by Linda Catlin Smith:
The String Quartet No. 1 is a work of far-reaching scope, even grandeur. It is long enough to get lost in, and yet it has many recurrences or near-recurrences that offer moments of familiarity within this strange and beautiful music. The piece ranges through many different territories: the chorale-like succession of soft chords followed by the quietest of single notes; dense pizzicato thickets and lonely pizzicato tones...
Congratulations!
The winning recordings of this year’s Coups de Coeur Musique Contemporaine of the Académie Charles Cros have been announced.
Among them: Friedrich Cerha’s Schlagzeugkonzert; Impulse für Orchester on Kairos, Harrison Birtwistle’s Complete String Quartets on AEON, and Morton Feldman’s Violin and Orchestra on the ECM New Series.
Read a review of Birtwsitle’s Complete String Quartets on The Guardian.
Here’s a short video from the ON - Neue Musik Köln on Ensemble Preasenz’ In die Nacht mit John und Morton [into the night with John and Morton]:
The video was taken on 28 November 2012 at the Kunst-Station Sankt Peter in Köln and features an excerpt of David Fennessy’s excellent Piano Trio | Music for the pauses in a conversation between John Cage and Morton Feldman.
Among the pieces performed on this evening, which focused on the friendship between Cage and Feldman, were also Feldman’s For John Cage, Steffen Krebber’s Konfusion IV and John Cage’s Imaginary landscape No. 1.
ECM Records released a new CD this week: Morton Feldman’s
Violin and Orchestra, performed by Carolin Widmann and the Frankfurt Radio
Symphony Orchestra under Emilio Pomàrico.
Andrew Clements of The Guardian writes that “[t]his performance is perfectly judged: Carolin Widmann is a fabulously assured and poetic soloist, taking minute care over the smallest, apparently most insignificant details, and Emilio Pomarico ensures that the orchestral playing is equally refined and scrupulous. It's a beautiful, haunting disc.”
Today the Swiss première of Morton Feldman’s only opera (or anti-opera) Neither takes place at the Stadttheater Bern. Stefan Schreiber conducts the Berner Symphony Orchestra with soprano Hélène Fauchère.
You can listen to an audio excerpt of the piece or read a work introduction by former interpreter Emilio Pomárico on our dedicated page. There’s also a fascinating article regarding the ‘co-elaboration’ between Feldman and Beckett available at The Modern Word which you shouldn’t miss out on.
Neither
Opera in 1 act | 55’
3 3 3 4 - 3 3 3 1 - perc(4), hp(2), pno, str
Swiss première, 19/4/2013, Stadttheater Bern; Hélène Fauchère, s; Berner SO,
cond. Stefan Schreiber
We’re off to the Konzerthaus in Vienna tonight for the latest concert in Klangforum Wien’s IKONEN series.
Under the title Vexations, Klangforum presents a rich programme of UE works:
Pierre Boulez: Mémoriale | ( ... explosante-fixe ... Originel)
Morton Feldman: Instruments 2
Beat Furrer:
Time out 1 and 2
Friedrich Cerha: Bruchstück, geträumt
as well as Olga Neuwirth’s ... miramondo multiplo ...
Jean Deroyer conducts, Eva Furrer and Anders Nyqvist are the soloists.
While the Wien Modern festival is raging here in
Vienna, here’s a quick look at some other performances around the world this
week.
Cornelius Cardew: Autumn 60 at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester
Luciano Berio: Linea for 2 pianos, vibraphone and marimba, performed by musikFabrik in Cologne.
Morton Feldman: Rothko Chapel at the esplanade in Singapore
Alexander Zemlinsky: Der Zwerg continues at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, together with Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges (see videos)
Julian Yu: Philopentatonia at the Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo
You can see a full list of all forthcoming performances in our calendar.
col legno’s
new CD, Besides Feldman, is now available. The project, led by musician and
producer Patrick Pulsinger, was part of the Feld(man) Forschung series at the Wien Modern 2010
festival.
The Viennese weekly newspaper Der Falter talks of the “considerable attraction” of the music.
Morton Feldman’s works are here.
From this
weekend’s blogs and tweets:
Alex Ross reports on a performance of Morton Feldman’s Triadic Memories at a floating concert hall in New York.
MahlerNews reports on Twitter that Michael Tilson Thomas’ DVD “Keeping Score: Mahler” has won a German Record Critics’ Prize (Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik).
And Norman Lebrecht spots Harrison Birtwistle watching cricket at Lords.