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FELDMAN: Intermission 5; Piano Piece 1952; Extensions 3; Palais de Mari; CRUMB: Processional; A Little Suite for Christmas – Steven Osborne, p. – Hyperion

FELDMAN: Intermission 5; Piano Piece 1952; Extensions 3; Palais de Mari; CRUMB: Processional; A Little Suite for Christmas – Steven Osborne, p. – Hyperion

by | Nov 24, 2016 | Classical CD Reviews

Piano music that quiets the mind and intrigues the senses. FELDMAN: Intermission 5; Piano Piece 1952; Extensions 3; Palais de Mari; CRUMB: Processional; A Little Suite for Christmas, A.D. 1979 – Steven Osborne, p. – Hyperion CDA 68108, 62:46 ****: Put the wife and kids to bed, dim the lights, and enter a sound world of musical quietude. Barely audible individual notes juxtaposed with forceful chords, long silences, glacial speed and lengthy reverberations echo in the sound world of Morton Feldman (1926-1987). This is piano music meant for meditation and drifting into the recesses of the mind and the ether of the senses. It’s also pregnant with subtle beauty, nuances of tone color, and moments of new sounds from the piano. As recounted by Alex Ross in a 2006 New Yorker article, Feldman met one of his major influences, John Cage, in 1950 after they walked out of a concert in Carnegie Hall, just after the New York Philharmonic had performed Anton Webern’s 12-tone Symphony. Feldman remarked to Cage, “Wasn’t that beautiful?” Both had left early to avoid Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, the next work on the program. Feldman grew up in the 30s and 40s of New York City and […]

Cikada, “Live at HCMF” = Works of LIM & NESS – LAWO

Cikada, “Live at HCMF” = Works of LIM & NESS – LAWO

by | Feb 11, 2016 | Classical CD Reviews

Cikada, “Live at HCMF” = LIZA LIM: Winding Bodies: Three Knots; The Heart’s Ear; JON ǾIVIND NESS: Gimilen – Cicada ens. – LAWO Classics LWC1086, 47:24 [Distr. by Naxos] (2/05/16) **1/2: Great performances it seems of these pretty tough works. I have heard the very talented and dedicated Cikada ensemble many times before and never been disappointed in their skill and artistry. That remains true and, frankly, most of what they do is pretty complicated and cerebral stuff that places many demands on the players as well as the audience. This live concert is no exception. Recorded live at the 2014 Huddersfield (England) Contemporary Music Festival, we get three pretty thorny and abstract works by Australian Liza Lim and Norwegian Jon Ǿivind Ness. I was unfamiliar with either until now. The first of the works by Lim is Winding Bodies: Three Knots, a three movement work that depicts or pays homage to an odd Nordic legend of sailors trying to buy favorable winds from some sorcerers. Each “knot” is intended to portray a type of wind condition that old time sailors would contend with. The work features some neat flute lines but also a ‘hardanger fiddle’ – an instrument indigenous […]