| A beautiful performance of Morton Feldman's final work. 'For Samuel Beckett', 55 minutes in duration, is scored for winds, brass, percussion, piano, harp, string quartet, and double bass. As in much of Feldman's music, its sonorities and gestures slowly and beautifully emerge and unfold. The title reflects Feldman's felt affinity to the writer more than it addresses any specific aesthetic relationship. Yet, one might detect in their respective work a parallel repetition of basic materials. The Vienna Klangforum (Sylvain Cambreling, conductor), which performs on this CD, is one of Europe's premiere ensembles for contemporary music.
For Samuel Beckett for chamber ensemble was Morton Feldman's last composition. Although intended to be heard at the threshold of silence, the hushed glimmers of this piece beckoned me to the volume knob for a closer listen to Feldman's pianissimo sorcery. Written in traditional notation, dissonant groups of instruments elongate, overlap, and flow into one another; the result is haunting and unsettling. |