If you love classical music and Feldman, you’re in for a treat with this brand-new TRPTK album “Feldman: Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello” by Nieuw Amsterdams Peil.
“Feldman: Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello” was recorded live during the Soundsofmusic Festival by one of the leading Dutch contemporary music ensembles, Nieuw Amsterdams Peil, as announced by Dutch record label TRPTK. Morton Feldman completed this piano quartet on May 28, 1987, not knowing it would be his last composition. Two months after the work’s premiere, on September 3, 1987, Feldman passed away at the age of 61 in his hometown of Buffalo, New York.
“Intense activity in certain areas of the brain”
“The often quiet music of Morton Feldman always needs a moment to travel from the instruments to the ear. But once it arrives, it generates intense activity in certain areas of the brain, keeping you fascinated by the gradual succession of chords and changes unfolding, which you don’t want to miss.
What’s the secret of this music? Is it Feldman’s infallible intuition? Certainly, it has something to do with the inspiration he drew from the artwork of his friends, New York painters, and artists. This final composition seems to be from Calder: weightless chords of almost equal size float in space like mobiles, giving you the feeling that time no longer exists.”
– Nieuw Amsterdams Peil
“I’m very into acoustical reality. For me, there is no such thing as compositional reality.”
– Morton Feldman
The liner notes were written by musicologist, composer, and author Elmer Schönberger. Then there is the album artwork, featuring an engraving by artist Francesca Patella.