Piano and String Quartet (Feldman): Difference between revisions
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'''''Piano and String Quartet''''' is a composition by American [[Avant-garde music|avant-garde]] composer [[Morton Feldman]] |
'''''Piano and String Quartet''''' is a composition by American [[Avant-garde music|avant-garde]] composer [[Morton Feldman]]. It was commissioned by the [[Kronos Quartet]] and pianist [[Aki Takahashi]], who premiered the piece at the 7th annual [[New Music America]] Festival in Los Angeles and released a studio recording in 1993. |
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==Background== |
==Background== |
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Revision as of 00:10, 29 September 2020
| Piano and String Quartet | |
|---|---|
| Piano quintet by Morton Feldman | |
| Period | Contemporary |
| Genre | Chamber music |
| Style | Avant-garde |
| Occasion | New Music America Festival |
| Dedication | Aki Takahashi and the Kronos Quartet |
| Performed | November 2, 1985: Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Publisher | Universal Edition (UE 17 972) |
| Duration | approx.1:20:00 |
| Morton Feldman: Piano and String Quartet | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:Kronos-feldman.jpg | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | September 28, 1993 | |||
| Recorded | November 1991 | |||
| Studio |
| |||
| Genre | Contemporary classical | |||
| Length | 1:19:33 | |||
| Label | Elektra/Nonesuch (79320-2) | |||
| Producer | Judith Sherman and the Kronos Quartet | |||
| Kronos Quartet chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Aki Takahashi chronology | ||||
| ||||
Piano and String Quartet is a composition by American avant-garde composer Morton Feldman. It was commissioned by the Kronos Quartet and pianist Aki Takahashi, who premiered the piece at the 7th annual New Music America Festival in Los Angeles and released a studio recording in 1993.
Background
Feldman composed Piano and String Quartet, when he was 59 years old. It was among Feldman's final completed works.[1] He had written the composition with the Kronos Quartet and Takahashi in mind as its performers.[2] It was commissioned for the seventh New Music America Festival in Los Angeles, where it premiered on November 2, 1985.[3] Within two years of the performance, Feldman died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 61.[4] Interest in his music grew rapidly in the short period after his death and his previously scarce discography was populated with numerous new recordings, mostly on independent labels.[5]
Music
In Feldman's late period, from 1977 until his death, the central concern of his compositions turned from timbre—i.e., the textural quality of sound—to perception of time.[6] Piano and String Quartet typifies the composer's late-period preoccupation with time and memory.[6] The most salient qualities of its formal structure are extremes of duration and repetition. A typical performance takes approximately 80 minutes, much longer than his early works or most music written by his peers in the avant-garde. However, it is only mid-length by the standard of his late works.
For the entirety of the piece, the musicians follow a simple alternating pattern: the string quartet plays a sustained chord, then the pianist plays an arpeggiated or "broken" chord.[7] The string instruments occasionally play the same pitch, creating a unison rather than a chord.[8] The sustain pedal of the piano remains pressed down for the entire performance, which indefinitely lengthens the notes and causes sympathetic resonance among the strings.[9] The harmonic content of the chords shifts throughout, but without a traditional sense of musical development. According to the Rough Guide to classical music, at first the piece "seems to have no beginning or end, no intention or direction"; however, the listener's attention is gradually enhanced and subtle changes in tone become magnified as it progresses, until even the subtlest differences take on the capacity to impart "a resonance and an intensity that is startling."[2]
Recordings
| Year | Performers | Label | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quartet | Pianist | ||
| 1993 | Kronos Quartet | Aki Takahashi | Nonesuch |
| 2001 | Ives Ensemble | John Snijders (also a member of the Ives Ensemble) | Hat Hut |
| 2011 | Eclipse Quartet | Vicki Ray | Bridge |
Kronos Quartet and Takahashi (1993)
The Kronos Quartet and Takahashi recorded the piece in November 1991 at Skywalker Sound in Nicasio, California. It was released by Nonesuch Records, then a subsidiary of Elektra Records.[2] The Kronos Quartet had been signed to the label since 1985.[10]
Critical reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | No rating[11] |
| Spin Alternative Record Guide | 10/10[12] |
Glenn Swan of AllMusic called the recording "[b]reathtaking" and wrote that the musicians "conjure up the ghost of Feldman to wander the streets of New York as if they were abandoned. This single piece, over 79 minutes in length, is like an icy flower that blooms almost undetected."[11] Reviewing selected recordings by the Kronos Quartet for the 1995 Spin Alternative Record Guide, critic Alex Ross gave the record a perfect score and rated it higher than any other recording by the quartet.[12] In the 2002 book Classical Music: The Listener's Companion, Raymond S. Tuttle recommended it as an "excellent" and comparatively accessible entry point for a listener new to Feldman's music: "Once you surrender traditional expectations about what music is supposed to do, you're overwhelmed by its ethereal beauty".[13]
Track listing
All music is composed by Morton Feldman
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Piano and String Quartet" | 79:33 |
Personnel
- David Harrington – violin
- John Sherba – violin
- Hank Dutt – viola
- Joan Jeanrenaud – cello
- Aki Takahashi – piano
See also
References
- ^ Ross 2006.
- ^ a b c Staines & Buckley 1998, p. 147.
- ^ Slonimsky 1994, p. 956.
- ^ Slonimsky 1994, p. 966.
- ^ Slonimsky 1994, p. 966; Tuttle 2002, p. 315.
- ^ a b Staines & Buckley 1998, p. 146.
- ^ Staines & Buckley 1998, p. 147; Tuttle 2002, p. 315.
- ^ Swed 1993.
- ^ Swed 1993; Staines & Buckley 1998, p. 147.
- ^ Blumenthal 1998, p. 196.
- ^ a b Swan n.d.
- ^ a b Ross 1995, p. 217.
- ^ Tuttle 2002, p. 315.
Bibliography
- Blumenthal, Howard J. (1998). "Kronos Quartet". The Classical CD Listener's Guide. New York: Billboard Books. pp. 196–197. ISBN 0-8230-7676-8 – via the Internet Archive.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Clark, Philip (August 2001). "The Primer: Morton Feldman". The Wire. No. 210. London. pp. 40–47 – via Exact Editions (subscription required).
{{cite magazine}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Ross, Alex (November 5, 1993). "Critic's Notebook; Of Mystics, Minimalists and Musical Miasmas". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 9, 2012. Retrieved September 27, 2020.
{{cite news}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - ——— (June 12, 2006). "American Sublime". The New Yorker. New York: Condé Nast. Archived from the original on August 28, 2020. Retrieved September 27, 2020.
{{cite magazine}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - ——— (1995). "Kronos Quartet". In Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (eds.). Spin Alternative Record Guide. New York: Vintage Books. pp. 217–218. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Slonimsky, Nicolas (1994). Music Since 1900 (5th ed.). New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 0-02-872418-6 – via the Internet Archive (registration required).
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Staines, Joe; Buckley, Jonathan, eds. (1998). "Morton Feldman". Classical Music: The Rough Guide. Rough Guides (2nd ed.). London: Penguin Group. pp. 146–147. ISBN 1-85828-257-8 – via the Internet Archive.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Swan, Glenn (n.d.). "Morton Feldman: Piano and String Quartet – Kronos Quartet / Aki Takahashi". AllMusic. Archived from the original on August 28, 2020. Retrieved September 27, 2020.
{{cite web}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Swed, Mark (September 28, 1993). Morton Feldman: Piano and String Quartet (PDF) (liner notes). New York: Nonesuch. 79320-2 – via the Internet Archive.
{{cite AV media notes}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Tuttle, Raymond S. (2002). "Morton Feldman". In Morin, Alexander J. (ed.). Classical Music: The Listener's Companion. San Francisco: Backbeat Books. pp. 315–316. ISBN 0-87930-638-6 – via the Internet Archive.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help)