FELDMAN Late works for piano (Alfonso Gómez)
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Genre:
Instrumental
Label: Kairos
Magazine Review Date: 04/2022
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 187
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: KAI0015106
Author: Liam Cagney
Feldman’s single-movement late works are monumental in length, culminating in the six hour-long Second String Quartet (find a comfortable seat for that). In each late work, a miniature musical figure is presented, then slowly, gradually, insistently, inventively worked upon. Feldman’s preferred analogy was with Persian rugs, with whose elaborate varied repetitions and woven colour tints he felt kinship. His scores, symmetrically, tend for their duration to have the same number of bars per system.
Previous releases by Philip Thomas (Another Timbre) and John Tilbury (LondonHALL) have collected all of Feldman’s piano music. Alfonso Gómez’s is the first release to collect specifically Feldman’s late piano music, and right away the three-disc, three-work set feels essential. Gómez’s touch is light, sensitive; he allows subtle space between the phrases for breath to come through, navigating with concentration the 70 minute-long, reverb-drenched For Bunita Marcus, a score in which the time signature changes from bar to bar. His For Bunita Marcus is never less than compelling. Every now and again, a small unexpected tonal game emerges from a previous phrase, then, repeated, takes over for several minutes.
The shortest work is Palais de Mari, a mere 26 minutes long. Homophonic elements play more of a part here than in For Bunita Marcus. Listening to the resonant decay with the constantly held-down reverb pedal is compulsive, like watching shimmering reflections on the surface of a forest lake while walking. The clear recording quality aids such poetic impressions. The hour and a half-long Triadic Memories starts with the left hand in a low register creating deep rumblings while far above a sparse melody is exposed. From this, motif by motif, an enormous artwork is derived. It is meditative music – you get lost in it – yet it can also be maddening, those endless repetitions. It’s music that rewards what you put into it. As Johannes Schöllhorn says in his booklet note: ‘With Feldman’s music, you have to listen – unlike much other music, it doesn’t listen for us.’
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