Last night we heard an extraordinary concert of works for very large orchestra and soloists by Morton Feldman, performed by a Czech orchestra from the town of Ostrova. It was supposedly the first all Feldman orchestral concert in the US, and featured the US premieres of two major works, "Flute and Orchestra" and "Violin and Orchestra". Both Vera and I were totally entranced; Feldman's ear for color is nowhere more apparent than in these orchestral works, and the imaginative variety of his timbres is astonishing. The orchestra played with extreme precision, and in the intimate space of Alice Tully Hall, every note was clear.
Feldman's music is not for everyone. It moves quite slowly, and eschews any kind of grand theatrical gesture or even regular pulse. Once you accept the scope of his music, the musical ideas are consistently interesting. Things are always changing, and musical ideas keep on returning in recognizable transformations. There were also even some very loud brass fortissimos!
The program featured one work written in the early 1960's, and then three works written in the later 1970's which showed Feldman's music evolving into his late style of the 1980's (best exemplified by his 6 hour string quartet!). The last piece, "Violin and Orchestra" was about an hour long, and eventually seems to make time stop. Those who know me know that I am not one to tolerate musical stillness for very long. But somehow, I was able to focus on this piece.
The only disappointment was the sparseness of the crowd; I had thought that we were in a Morton Feldman boom of some kind, and that the hall would be packed for an event this unique.
All in all, one of the most satisfying concerts I have been to in a long time.
