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| Morton Feldman: Piano and String Quartet / Aki Takahashi, Kronos Quartet | 
 enlarge | Creators: Joan Jeanrenaud, Morton Feldman, Kronos Quartet, Aki Takahashi, Aki Takahaski, Hank Dutt, David Harrington, John Sherba
Label: Nonesuch
Category: Music
List Price: $16.98
Buy New: $11.31
You Save: $5.67 (33%)
Buy New/Used from $7.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  (19 reviews)
Sales Rank: 86386
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 79320
UPC: 075597932027
EAN: 0075597932027
ASIN: B000005J27
Release Date: September 28, 1993
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 It's Like a Drug! October 23, 2002
17 out of 19 found this review helpful
I have a friend who swears that Feldman's music is narcotic. I don't know if I'd go that far...for me it certainly isn't soporiphic, but it is deeply addicting. And Piano and String Quartet is perhaps the most addicting piece I've heard from Morty. I know why Feldman was interested in daunting length because I never want this work to end.Feldman is a minimalist in the most natural sense...like Mondrian or Rothko in painting, or Robert Creely in poetry, or Becket in Theater. Feldman's minimalism is based on limiting the means of composition and leaving space on his sonic canvas. (as opposed to Reich, Riley and Glass who limit musical means but then cover the page with their patterns. It's what a friend of mine calls energy minimalism.) In the case of Piano and String Quartet, the basic musical means are easily described. The quartet play delicately balanced chords, while the piano plays ethereal fillagrees...arpeggios and crystalline chords, all at very low volume levels (the piece never gets louder than piano). Each iteration of this material arises from silence and recedes back into the silence. It sounds profoundly natural, like waves of sound. The musical language is lush and haunting...neither tonal or atonal, but something that floats in between. (Another big difference between Feldman and the minimalist school is that Feldman's harmonic sense is more complex...and may have actually had some influence on later developments in minimalism, particularly on Reich's more chromatic music of the 80's onwards.) The real art of this piece is in the details. Though the basic compositional form stays rather static throughout the piece, there is never a literal repeat. Each new statement of the material changes in small but, in the context, monumental ways. The chords change slowly and subtley, the piano goes from aprpeggios to solid chords. The string halo of harmony changes in weight and register, the rhythms (meticulously written out by Feldman...there is no rubato here...Feldman wrote it all in)make subtle changes both in durations of notes and of the rests and silences. Anything that breaks the pattern is significant. In this context, when the cello enters with a pizzacato passage about half way into the piece, the effect is shattering. I can't exactly describe the effect of this on me...it's meditative but not like Part...it's more like something that makes me intensely aware of the beauty of the individual moment (the ecstasy of the moment in Morty's words) The effect is curiously autumnal, like late Brahms. You feel it almost as an ache in the heart at the beauty and frailty of the passing world. (Sorry this is so nebulous, but late Feldman seems to inspire such poetic musings, I find.) The performance on this disc is about as perfect as you can find. Feldman's music is notoriously difficult to perform. (I've tried to play some of the early piano pieces myself and they are fiendish, even though they don't sound it.) The difficulties are not really technical...this isn't Liszt or Paganini. But the sustained concentration for the performer is unbelievable. No measure is exactly the same in rhythm, and you have to count like mad. The results on this Cd however are sublime. You are not aware of the effort of the performers, just the waves of sound floating in and out of consciouness. And Takahashi is sublime. There isn't a bad note in the performance. (Incidentally, I belong to a listserve on Feldman and, though members can rarely agree on anything else, this album always gets the highest rate of reccomendation.) Like others here, I'd hesitate to recommend this to newcomers to Feldman's work. Better to listen to Rothko Chapel or the Tilson Thomas Coptic Light recording. In both cases the works on the discs are only at most a half an hour long...Piano and String Quartet clocks in at almost 80 minutes. But once you get hooked on Feldman you'll want to explore this work, which I think is one of Feldman's most ravishing and strongest. (And once you graduate from this one, you may want to tackle the new Hat Art recording of String Quartet No. 2 which is breathtaking and runs over 4 hours!)
Transluscent composition, great performance September 20, 2002
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
There's no question that Morton Feldman's music can be maddeningly long, minimal, and soporiphic to those unwilling to enter his particular sound world. But if you're willing to try, this is as good a recording of his music as you're likely to find.As far as the composition, I personally found this to be as strong a work as he wrote in his later years. And as for the performance: Kronos has never sounded better. This work requires stamina, focus, and coloration as opposed to dexterous virtuosity (of which they were certainly capable); Kronos does the job magnificently. Kudos to the recording engineers as well, who manage to emphasize the "sound." Aki Takahashi was one of three pianists of choice for Feldman during his lifetime, and I can hear why. The performance is maximum length for one CD (79 & 1/2 minutes) so I suspect all parties involved wanted to see that the work was SLOW enough, but fit the format's constraints. If I was to recommend an introductory recording to Feldman's music, I'd probably choose "Rothko Chapel" first. But if you really want to dive in...try this one.
Gary J Higgins November 18, 2001
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Owners of the shimmering Kronos box set will likely find the Feldman disc the most played of the ten; those with the original discs must include this riveting opus...Catrina and Zachary say it all. If this existed on vinyl, I would have worn it out ages ago.
In the notes for 1968's Concerto for Prepared Piano and Orchestra, John Cage wrote about the purpose of music being "to sober and quiet the mind, thus rendering it susceptible to divine influences." Feldman achieves this aim with exquisite grace and discipline.
My first listening was on a road trip, alone in my car on a cold day: my involvement with the piece completely immersed me to the point that I was jarred at the end by brake lights in front of me. I had no recollection of the past 50 miles or so, nor a clear memory of having gotten in the vehicle in the first place; what remained was merely a faint idea of my destination. In short, I was autopiloted by a dead composer and five exemplary musicians.
There are pieces with this level of emotional and intellectual density: Om Kalsoum's live recording of "Zekriat," for example, or Karajan's 1959 "Missa Solemnis"--withering, luminous masterpieces. However, Feldman is a singular wonder who gave so much to 20th century music. We find his apotheosis on this disc by Kronos and Takahashi.
 nothing happens, for a long time May 4, 2001
6 out of 12 found this review helpful
"Rothko Chapel" (with "Why Patterns?" on New Albion) is sublimely beautiful. The very Beckettian "For Samuel Beckett" (I have the hatArt recording of the Ensemble Modern), which is one of Feldman's last works, is also a masterpiece. "Piano and String Quartet" is not. Despite my appreciation of Feldman and the Kronos Quartet, I found it to be painful to listen to -- just ever so faint tinkling and bowing that goes on and on. Perhaps, as another reviewer suggested, I didn't surrender fully. So be it. Caveat emptor.
My suggestion for anyone interested in Morton Feldman is to try some other compositions/recordings. The above-mentioned ROTHKO CHAPEL (see my review) is a good place to start. If you can't find FOR SAMUEL BECKETT on HatArt, try the recording on Kairos. The 2-disc set of "still life" recordings on CPO with Hans Zender conducting is superb (FLUTE/CELLO/OBOE/PIANO AND ORCHESTRA -- see my review). And VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA/COPTIC LIGHT on Col Legno is also fantastic (see my review).
a very few essential things February 26, 2001
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I enjoy this beautiful, mystical music. It is a Piano & String Quartet performed exquisitely by Sensei Aki Takahashi (p), Mr David Harrington (v1), Mr John Sherba (v2), Mr Hank Dutt (viola), and Ms Joan JeanRenaud (c). In this piece from 1985, Professor Morton Feldman (1926-87) writes what Mr Mark Swed terms as a "fully determined piece of very long duration." This aspect may be disconcerting to some listeners. Mr Swed acknowledges as much by writing, "The time that Felman's pieces consume, however, has been their most daunting aspect to many harried modern listerns, dependent upon the modern world's excess of stimuli." This may be true, however, I find the piece quite rewarding. The more deeply I listen to it, the more I sense it transcends time and space. It is indeed a spiritual experience for me. From the notes, there are two quotes of Professor Feldman which I feel are apropos. "I prefer never knowing when you are gonna hear something, when you are gonna see something." "What I am after is somewhat like Mondrian not wanting to paint bouquets, but a single flower." If you are interested in the music of Professor Morton Feldman, or in quiet, contemplative music, this CD will interest you.
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