Morton Feldman: Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello

Description

Morton Feldman takes his unique art of limitation to the extreme in his last completed composition "Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello". Ensemble Avantgarde invites you to immerse yourself in a meditative sound world. This is a masterful performance with great serenity and a sense of infinite time: truly music about and for eternity.

Seemingly immobile, Feldman's tonal landscape evolves slowly, yet astonishingly new sounds always emerge to hold the listener in thrall. The measured unfolding of the material perfectly balances stasis and development. Without emphasis on dramatic contrast or large fluctuations in the rate of change, the listener is able to focus on the work's many subtle and beguiling details. The chords begin to change and comes to life with only the slightest timbral changes.

Organic patterns, recurring motifs, irregularities in structure, minimal use of colour with nuances in shading... these artistic ideas from Anatolian rug- making fascinated Feldman. He develops the compositional material in a kind of slow dance of gradual familiarity and reminiscence.

Steffen Schleiermacher, together with Andreas Seidel, Dorothea Hemken and Christian Giger, all principal players from the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, work so well together they seem to think, move and breathe as one.

"All the more reason to praise the impressive performance of the interpreters, who present this minimalist music in their own way with self-control and patience, without losing sight of the stringency of the music." – Pizzicato *****

"Ensemble Avantgarde's sensitive performance, recorded in the unembellished acoustic of a concert hall, unfolds its beauty with a rapt, finely balanced combination of tension and calm." – BBC Music Magazine ****