Aki Takahashi Plays Morton Feldman

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Music reviews of Aki Takahashi Plays Morton Feldman

Music Review: Beautifully Interpreted Survey of Feldman's Piano Music
Rating: 5 Stars

The CD is really a broad sampling of Feldman's solo piano music. While not all of these pieces are top drawer Feldman, they do present a great overview of his stylistic development. In fact, the only major development missing is the graphically notated scores with which he initially made his reputation. The four part Illusions is the earliest work on the recording, and quite unlike any other Feldman work that I've heard or played. It clearly shows the influence of his teacher, Stepan Wolpe on the young Feldman. Like Wolpe's music, it is not serial, but it is freely atonal. The rhythms are jagged and the dynamics varied. Overall the effect is close to the Webern Piano Variations.

Written just a year later, the two Intermissions (from a series of 6 total pieces) signal the beginning of Feldman's first mature style and introduce the obsessions that the composer would become known for. The most striking thing about these pieces is the silence and space which are deeply integrated into the work. The decay of the piano, and the delicacy of attack become primary elements of the language. Musically the works consist of small points of sound...either single notes, widely spaced double notes or tense but soft clusters of highly dissonant chords...each separated by silence and space. Though the work is in a steady tempo, the rhythms are notated with a delicate precision that negate the feeling of pulse. The chords seem to flow in and out of our ears.

The next three pieces, Extension 3, Piano Piece 1955 and Piano Piece (for Phillip Gunston - not to be confused with the later ensemble piece) continue developing this same early style with significant variations. Extension 3 concerns itself with repetition and pattern, something that would become a major stylistic factor in Feldman's music of the 80s. It is also a beautifully shaped work, with a definate climax toward the end of the work as the rhythm heats up and chords are marked to be played as loud as possible. Piano Piece 1955 is concerned with durations. When a note ends is just as important with this piece as when it begins. A major organizing principle of the piece is the reverse arpeggio...a chord is struck and then selected notes are dampened and removed from the sound while others are held. It is a subtle and very beautiful effect. Piano Piece (for Phillip Gunston) continues this development while adding effects for sustain pedal, creating gently changing halos of sound.

The two major works on the album are Piano from 1977 and Palais de Mari. Piano is in what I consider Feldman's middle period style. The work is meticulously notated, the composer having given up on the more aleatoric elements of his early style. Like the Instrument and Orchestra works of the 70's Feldman organizes the work on recurrent chords, while not slavishly following any pattern. Rhythms shift and change and the weight of chords is always different, but this is not a pattern work, like so many of his most famous pieces of the 80s. Rather, it takes the brief music of the 50s and 60s and lengthens it to concert proportions.

Palais de Mari is the stunner on the album. This is definately in Feldman's late style, and perhaps an essential work in the composer's entire oevre. A quiet pattern is set up using very minimal means and varied in the most intensely subtle ways. A note changes here, and rhythm there, the register shifts, the same four note pattern in the treble is given a haunting change of underlying harmony. The chords are sometimes tense and dissonant, and sometimes almost impressionistic. This is a beautiful and meltingly lovely work, autumnal in the same way that late Brahms is...and reminicent of Feldman's Piano and String Quartet (if you don't like that work you won't like this one.) And what amazes is how much timbral variation the composer can get with just this simple means and a single instrument.

The sound and performance on this Mode CD is excellent. Takahashi has a delicacy of touch that is wonderful on this music. It is intimate, hushed and yet full. And she makes the music breath...something I have yet to learn how to do in this difficult repertoire. Once again, another highly recommended CD. While, outside of Palais de Mari, none of this material is essential Feldman (for that, you would need a long list but it might include For Phillip Gunston, For Samuel Beckett, Piano and Strings, the Second String Quartet, the Instrument and Orchestra Pieces....the list goes on...) it is a wonderful survey of the important periods in the composers career and when played with this much love, the CD is self-recommending.

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