This record is a delight—two characteristic compositions from Morton Feldman, the still small voice of American experimental music, with varied timbres and neither of them as indulgently long as some of his later works. Rothko Chapel was first recorded in 1976 on Odyssey in the USA with violist Karen Phillips as soloist. Feldman wrote his The Viola in my Life series for her and presumably the Rothko Chapel part as well. This new CD fortunately lacks the surface noise of the old LP so Feldman's quiet textures in meditative tempo come through exactly as he intended. In fact the music is a remarkably precise counterpoint of Mark Rothko's large canvases—there are several in the Tate Gallery in London—and was planned for the chapel of meditation open to all faiths or none, that the painter designed at Houston, Texas. Feldman's wide open spaces of contemplation achieve an unusual serenity.
Rothko Chapel has a wider range of expression than some Feldman. In particular the viola melody in section 4, which the composer calls ''quasi-Hebraic'', is unusually lyrical and turns out to have been written when the composer was 15. The writing for chorus has the abstract, floating quality of Feldman's unique sonorities: everything is carefully balanced with the Berkeley University Chamber Chorus and well recorded.
Why Patterns? is less familiar and this must be its first recording. The three players—flute, glockenspiel and piano—interact flexibly until the last few minutes of the near half-hour work. The freedom of having parts for the players but no exact synchronization for most of the piece creates a disembodied relationship between the three colours—abstract expressionism slowly unfolded in a spectral procession with just enough action to hold interest. As time goes on, this music seems to have an increased relevance to the climate of the 1990s with its ready response to the spiritual minimalism of Part or Tavener. Feldman, who struggled for recognition outside the new music scene in his lifetime, is going further afield thanks to recordings like this.'