This reissue of a CRI recording of three of Morton Feldman's most important works from the 1960s and 1970s -- The Viola in My Life, False Relationships & the Extended Ending, and Why Patterns? -- all for small instrumental ensembles, has strong historical as well as musical interest. These were the first recordings of these pieces, made soon after they were written, with the composer either conducting or playing piano. The sound quality is less than pristine by the standards of the early twenty first century, but the room ...
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This reissue of a CRI recording of three of Morton Feldman's most important works from the 1960s and 1970s -- The Viola in My Life, False Relationships & the Extended Ending, and Why Patterns? -- all for small instrumental ensembles, has strong historical as well as musical interest. These were the first recordings of these pieces, made soon after they were written, with the composer either conducting or playing piano. The sound quality is less than pristine by the standards of the early twenty first century, but the room noises these recordings capture were for Feldman an essential aspect of the performance. The barely perceived sounds -- the shifting of sticks in the percussionist's hand, a creaking floorboard, a suppressed sneeze or cough -- enrich the experience of close listening that these pieces require. The sound quality is a reminder of the authenticity of these performances -- that this is the way the original audiences would have heard these pieces -- and draws the listener into the world in...
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