Morton Feldman: For Samuel Beckett (1999)

Morton Feldman's swan song is For Samuel Beckett, scored in 1987 for a non-standard chamber orchestra of 23 players and performed on this Kairos disc by Klangforum Wien under the direction of Sylvain Cambreling. The disc contains only one track, For Samuel Beckett, and runs 54 and a half minutes. Unlike some late Feldman works, which are justly lauded for their sweetness of sound, long durations, and unending sense of solitudinarian calm, For Samuel Beckett has a mysterious and somewhat menacing character. Subdivided ... Read More

Morton Feldman's swan song is For Samuel Beckett, scored in 1987 for a non-standard chamber orchestra of 23 players and performed on this Kairos disc by Klangforum Wien under the direction of Sylvain Cambreling. The disc contains only one track, For Samuel Beckett, and runs 54 and a half minutes. Unlike some late Feldman works, which are justly lauded for their sweetness of sound, long durations, and unending sense of solitudinarian calm, For Samuel Beckett has a mysterious and somewhat menacing character. Subdivided instrumental groups exchange pitches belonging to a large, dissonant cluster chord. The basic notes in use do not vary, but the order in which they come in, and the combinations resulting thereof, does. As Marcel Duchamp once said, "Repetition is change," and this is a terrific example of minimalism in music that is not "minimalistic" in style, at least not in the usual sense of the term. For Samuel Beckett seems to hearken back for inspiration to Beckett works such as Ping and Imagination... Read Less