Listen with Care

Peter Burwasser on Classical

by Peter Burwasser

"Extremely quiet, all attacks at a minimum, with no feeling of a beat." If this performance instruction by composer Morton Feldman for his work The Viola in My Life II sounds like a recipe for boredom, read no further. Rock 'n' roll it ain't. If you are already a Feldman fan, you will know that what he seeks with this direction is a new way of making music, almost akin to painting, and — by the time of the Viola series in 1970 — a break in his own way of writing. Feldman was an early ally of Cage and his crowd, and like Cage, frequently used indeterminate and chance technique in his music. He returned to strict notation by the late 1960s, and by the time of his death in 1987, had become ultra-precise in the mapping out of very long, otherworldly compositions that, almost paradoxically, called for the utmost technical wherewithal and stamina to create the illusion of timelessness and simplicity.

The four works encompassing The Viola in My Life, are a significant milestone in the career of this great American composer. There is still a sense of the structure and shape of conventional music, albeit in the polychromatic language of the day. Unlike such later masterpieces as the two string quartets and Piano and String Quartet, the music of The Viola in My Life seems to have a beginning, middle and end. Yet there are many moments, especially in the latest of the works, where you can hear the composer stutter, with the softly slashing, repeated phrases that sound like a painter's brush meticulously shaping patterns in the shadows of a canvas. It is a mesmerizing, even hypnotic effect, but it requires active listening. Don't do the crossword puzzle or watch the Phillies while listening to this. Just listen to it. With care. You will be rewarded.

The new recording of the four Viola pieces on ECM is the only way you are going to hear it, unless you play it yourself, and fortunately, it is a beautiful job. The soloist is Polish-born Marek Konstantynowicz, accompanied by the Cikada Ensemble, of Norway, led by Christian Eggen. These artists play with a reverence and elegance that makes the music glow. As an introduction to the magical music of Mort, this release ranks with the exquisite recording of Piano and String Quartet on Nonesuch. Don't have that one, either? Get 'em both. This music could change your life.

(p_burwasser@citypaper.net)