Tag: Morton Feldman

“An elegy to … music’s departing landscape”

Circle Thursday, March 26, in your calendar now, and plan to Uber it to Steinway Hall in New York at 1133 Sixth Avenue for Morton Feldman at 100: “Triadic Memories,” Marilyn Nonken‘s performance of Feldman’s epic 90-minute piano solo, which she originally recorded for Mode Records in 2005. According to the web page for the event:

Feldman’s Triadic Memories is a 90-minute elegy to what the composer saw as music’s departing landscape, where the sound exists in our hearing — leaving us rather than coming towards us. Part ritual, part meditation, Triadic Memories offers the opportunity to explore issues of perception, memory, and imagination.  “Any pianist wanting to play Feldman needs the most exquisite touch, and also great stamina,” writes the London Times,  “and Marilyn Nonken clearly has both in abundance.”

A reception and pre-concert talk will precede the performance. RSVP and prepare to perceive.

Happy 100th

Morton Feldman. Photo: Soundstreams.

A toot on the birthday horn today for Morton Feldman, born on this day in 1926. A major figure in post-war American concert music, he produced works of remarkable delicacy and duration that remain unique in the canon.

On this occasion I recommend that you cue up two recordings that my lovely wife Marilyn Nonken has released through Mode Records. Feldman described his 1981 Triadic Memories as “the biggest butterfly in captivity” and it remains one of his most important solo works; Marilyn recorded it in 2003. And only a few years ago she and cellist Stephen Marotto collaborated on Feldman’s Complete Music for Cello & Piano. Links to hi-res recordings above courtesy Presto Music.

Marilyn will be performing Triadic Memories live at Steinway Hall in March. More about that soon; in the meantime, sit back with the lights down low and treat yourself to a few hours of elegant contemplation.

Patterns

It’s taken a while, but it’s worth the wait: the Complete Music for Cello & Piano by Morton Feldman, performed by my lovely wife Marilyn Nonken (piano) and the estimable Stephen Marotto (cello), is now out and available for purchase from Mode Records. The centerpiece of the 2-CD set is Feldman’s hypnotic 1981 “Patterns in a Chromatic Field,” but the works range in time from 1946 through 1981, permitting the listener to chart Feldman’s development over nearly thirty-five years of his musical activity.  Recorded at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) in Troy, NY, in 2018, it’s beautifully recorded and mastered by producers Jeffrey Means and Brian Brandt and engineers Jeff Svatek and Todd Vos. Nobody who’s interested in 20th-century American music will want to be without it.

The CD is available from Mode Records and a top-quality FLAC download of the album can be found at Bandcamp; it will be released through various streaming services next month.