Last night was the last of the four concerts focussing on the music of Morton Feldman and, for me at least, it was the first concert here at the festival that was a bit of a disappointment. There was a full house, as always. Here are the audience members lining up to enter the church:
The performers were soprano Sarah Aristidou with the Vienna Radio Symphony conducted by Ilan Volkov. I don't know why the two works last night--in addition to the opera Neither, we heard String Quartet and Orchestra, written in 1973--did not create the magical atmosphere the works for chorus and orchestra did a few nights ago, but that was my impression. Very competently played and sung, yes, but the result was dreary sameness instead of delightful continuing on and on. I sensed the audience might be in agreement as there was not nearly the enthusiasm as in the other concert and people started filing out quite quickly.
The notes don't provide many clues as to how the opera might be staged even though there have been a number of staged performances. This was a concert presentation. At the end, my feeling was that Morton Feldman is perhaps the least dramatic composer ever and, if opera requires some drama, he is unlikely to provide it!
Here are the performers acknowledging applause at the end:
To give you a bit of an idea, here is a clip of the first ten minutes of the opera in a performance by soprano Sarah Leonard with the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra conducted by Zoltan Pesko.
I suppose the comparable work might be Schoenberg's Erwartung.
I know little of Morton Feldman's music though strongly remember a piano recital of "late works of Beethoven and Feldman." I loved the Feldman piece, though I don't remember what it was, yet I remember how I felt during it, and a big part of that was because he lingered so long on a feeling or effect, in some ways repetitious but never feeling stuck or monotonous to me. Rather more of being taken somewhere outside of time and place and being able to stay lucid there in a strange and new experience. And having just listened to your embedded recording of the first 10 minutes of his opera "Neither," the effect on me was very similar to my recollection of his music in a piano recital. Very much the same composer, judging by the similar effect on me despite quite different ensembles and pieces. An effect I like and want more of.
ReplyDeleteWill, I agree completely. That was very much my impression of the first concert of his chamber music. I very much liked it. But i had a different feeling from the opera and orchestral music. It seemed as if the effects and subtle contrasts that came across with the smaller ensembles did not work with the larger one. Just one impression, of course.
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