For the Record: Feldman edition.
A mesmerizing box set from Another Timbre ushers in the Morton Feldman centenary, plus new arrivals and coming attractions.
For the Record is a weekly column that rounds up details about new and pending recordings of interest to the new-music community – contemporary classical music and jazz, electronic and electroacoustic music, and idioms for which no clever genre name has been coined – on CD, vinyl LP, cassette, digital-only formats… you name it.
This list of release dates is culled from press releases, Amazon, Bandcamp, and other internet stores and sources, social-media posts, and online resources such as Discogs. Dates cited typically correspond to initial U.S. release, and are subject to change. (Links to Amazon, used when all else fails, do not imply endorsement.)
These listings are not comprehensive—nor could they be! If you’d like to submit a forthcoming recording for consideration, please email information to nightafternight@icloud.com. (Streams and downloads preferred.)
All opinions expressed herein are solely my own, and do not reflect the views of my employer.
Topspin.
A quick note before we begin: This column was slated to appear last Friday, January 9, and was essentially complete before an urgent issue reorganized the day, the weekend, and beyond. In the spirit of accepting what can’t be changed, I’m leaving this text alone, save for acknowledging the changed date and adding a single new citation at the end.
Compact discs hit the mass market midway through my high school years, a time when all me and my friends were interested in was hearing Steely Dan’s Aja and Sting’s Dream of the Blue Turtles in the most surgical sound we cassette-reared younglings could imagine. It was years later when I realized another benefit of growing up during the CD age is never having known a time when Morton Feldman’s music wanted for representation on record.
True, you needed a box set for some of the notoriously long late works, at least until DVD and Blu-ray audio arrived; still, it wasn’t long before you could choose from multiple versions of works like String Quartet 2. Labels like Hat Hut and Mode developed impressive surveys of Feldman’s singular oeuvre, while others like Bridge and Frozen Reeds made significant contributions.
In 2019, Another Timbre, an English label I’ve cited frequently and fervidly in this newsletter, joined the Feldman venture in a major way with a supremely fine box set devoted to works for solo piano, played with authority and sublimity by Philip Thomas. “The performances are intimate to the point of sensuality,” Hugh Morris memorably wrote for VAN, “every gesture like a phantom hand hovering above the tiny hairs on your arm, in that fragile space between presence and contact.”
The set became the label’s best seller, and established Another Timbre as a trusted guide to Feldman’s rarefied canon. More noteworthy albums followed, including a properly ghostly Violin and String Quartet played by de facto house band Apartment House and an arresting, glacial interpretation by Antti Tolvi of Intermission 6—the latter lucidly analyzed by Tim Rutherford-Johnson in his recently launched, already essential Purposeful Listening.
Now, with the Feldman centennial arriving on Monday here today, comes yet another persuasive offering from Another Timbre. Titled Trios, the 6CD box includes Feldman’s three great late works for flute, piano, and percussion – Why Patterns? (1979), Crippled Symmetry (1982), For Philip Guston (1984) – played by GBSR Duo, percussionist George Barton and pianist Siwan Rhys, with flutist Taylor MacLennan. The release comes ahead of a concert these performers will present in London on January 18, details of which are here.
There are other fine recordings of this repertoire, of course, including a historic live recording of Crippled Symmetry by dedicatees Eberhard Blum, Jan Williams, and Nils Vigeland on Frozen Reeds. But MacLennan, Barton, and Rhys bring extraordinary poise and quiet intensity to these contemplative lattices of tone, and the recorded sound serves the music and musicians ideally.
What’s more, listening in sequence to these three works – respectively around 30, 90, and 280 minutes – you discern enrichment and refinement over time. Why Patterns? can seem positively gabby in proximity to For Philip Guston, one of what Rutherford-Johnson terms “those long, late works that play Proustian games of recollection and faulty re-inscription” in “Something that has to do with … leaving …” published yesterday by VAN.
That article is warmly recommended; so, too, is “The genius of Morton Feldman,” a succinct, intelligent Feldman overview by Philip Clark for The Spectator – which includes a firsthand account of having been a page-turner in a concert performance of For Philip Guston. “American Sublime,” a 2006 New Yorker column by Alex Ross, retains its authority and ineffable lyricism; on his long-running blog, The Rest Is Noise, Ross also offers a useful list of Feldman 100 concerts far and wide, among other timely posts.
Notably, Rutherford-Johnson acknowledges troubling allegations of sexual misconduct and possibly worse that surfaced years after Feldman’s death and Ross’s article, observing that “great music can leave both ugliness and beauty in its wake.” Each listener is left to determine how to negotiate an unsettling distance between artist and art; all might agree, however, that the enduring enigma of this music is eloquently served in these profound accounts.
January 12 postscript: One more new essay to recommend today, “The Feldman Century,” published by George Grella at Kill Yr Idols.
New releases: January 9.
Kris Davis and the Lutosławski Quartet - The Solastalgia Suite (Pyroclastic; concert recap here)
Dell-Lillinger-Westergaard - DLW: Live at Salle Cortot (bastille musique)
Leo Genovese - Solo Brooklyn (577 Records)
Ken Ueno - Wavelengths - performances by Ken Ueno, Karen Yu, and The Up:Strike Project (New Focus)
Uncivilized - “Froggies” (Unciv Music)
Various artists - BMP: SONGBOOK, Vols. 1 & 2 - compositions by Juhi Bansal, Mohammed Fairouz, Michael Gordon, Ricky Ian Gordon, Ted Hearne, Emma O’Halloran, Molly Joyce, Mary Kouyoumdjian, David Lang, David T. Little, Keeril Makan, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly, Paola Prestini, Ellen Reid, Kamala Sankaram, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Tanyaradzwa Tawengwa, and Du Yun (Bright Shiny Things)
Upcoming releases.
January 16.
Helen Grime - Violin Concerto - Malin Broman, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Daniel Harding (OUR Recordings)
January 23.
Emily Manzo - Time in Water - compositions by Mary Halvorson and Aaron Siegel (Gold Bolus)
Angelika Niescier - Chicago Tapes (Intakt)
January 30.
Morton Feldman - Piano and String Quartet - Florence Millet, JACK Quartet (bastille musique; new date)
February 13.
Joel Harrison & The Alternative Guitar Summit - Don’t Forget Your Guitar (AGS Recordings)
March 6.
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Piano Works - Alice Sara Ott (Deutsche Grammophon)
March 20
Adam O’Farrill - Elephant (Out of Your Head)
Find many more upcoming releases in For the Record: The Master List, here.
Photographs by Steve Smith, except where indicated.
Great piece, Steve. I love Feldman’s music so much.
The anniversary reminds me of my struggle to sit through a live performance of Feldman's second quartet, which I heard at the Armory all those years ago! I've been listening to some of the Bandcamp excerpts and still don't share your appreciation of Feldman's music, but as always, I appreciate your eloquent words!