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It's Fulkerson's next Feldman installment

Sparky P. | composer, all around nice guy, yada yada yada | 08/29/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In my review of the disc "The Ecstacy of the Moment" I stated at the end that I look forward to Fulkerson's next installment. Well, here it is and I am glad. The order of the pieces is interesting as he alternates voice and instrument pieces with strictly instrumental pieces (and there has the clarinet, 'cello and piano work in between the two piano trio and chimes pieces (Bewteen Catagories is double the ensemble)). Four out of the seven works date from the 1960's, with a piece from the '40's (Journey to the End of Night), the '50's (cummings songs) and the '70's (Three Clarinets...) added. The earliest work, Journey to the End of Night, has Feldman fresh from his tutelege with Stefan Wolpe. (There are some moments in that piece which remind me of Stravinsky, but that's just my ears.) The cummings songs shows Feldman at his most Webernesque, with the wide leaps in the vocal line, the spare accompaniment from the 'cello and piano, and brevity, the four songs finished in less than four minutes. Intervals and The O'Hara Songs date from the early 1960's and continue the writing style similar to the Durations cycle, where the value of each note is determined by each player. Four instruments (1965) closely resembles the Vertical Thoughts cycle where while the durations are still more or less free, the sounds do not overlap as much as Durations. Between Catagories combines these two. Written for two equal groups of violin, 'cello, piano and chimes (with the stereophonic spacial separation similar to Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta), both ensembles begin at the same time (although one group begins with silence) then proceed as if alone. (Listen for the piano arpeggio midway through that was also used in False Relationships on CRI's Viola in My Life CD.) Three Clarinets, 'Cello and Piano was written in standard notation and investigates opposing sonrities (sustained unattacked notes vs. short attacked notes).The only downside of this disc is the sound quality, which sounds it bit distant, but I have forgiven all that for the fact that these are the only commercial recordings of most of these items (as of this writing, of course). According to Sir Chris Villar's Morton Feldman website, Fulkerson's next Mode release project will be a survey of Feldman's large ensemble graph pieces. (Final note: there are still but a baker's dozen or so of Feldman chamber works still unrecorded; let's get busy, eh?)"