Review: Sensational Feldman Trios for Flutes, Keyboards and Percussion in a Box

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Hello friends, this is Dave Heruritz, executive editor at classicstoday.com.

[00:00:05]Here with an absolutely outstanding multid-isk set, six CDs of Feldman's trios for mixed ensembles. I mean unusual ensembles because he actually did write a piano trio, believe it or not, for violin, piano, and cello. The normal trio um outlay. But here we've got the works for flute, piano, and percussion. Um, the three major ones, which are really the ones that he's best known for. Uh, Y patterns, which is wonderful because it only takes half an hour to play, so you can actually understand it in a reasonable amount of time. Uh, Crippled Symmetry, which is about 90 minutes long in this performance. And for Philip Gustin, which is four CDs and 281 minutes and 30 seconds.

[00:00:59]Oh my goodness. What does that work out to in hours and hours? 4 hours, right? 4 hours 41 minutes and 30 seconds. That makes about it makes sense, doesn't it?

[00:01:10]Actually, uh, these pieces have all been recorded previously and and the interpretations are, you know, pretty much in line, you know, give or take a few, um, which is rather wonderful. They are marvelous, strange individual pieces. I think Feldman was one of the really great 20th century composers and certainly um, one of the great avanguard composers because his music is 100% honest.

[00:01:40]it does exactly what it says it does or what it purports to do. You may not like it. That's a whole other issue. you know, whether it's approachable, whether you agree with his his concept or his intent. All of those things are are valid issues, but they're not relevant to the success of the music qua music because these pieces all deal with issues of of pattern recognition and simultaneity of ensemble vertically and horizontally and whatnot. And and that's what they do.

[00:02:17]That's what they do. I Feldman famously was influenced by the the patterns, the repeating patterns of Persian rugs and the slight variations in in over over the course of the patterns and whatnot.

[00:02:32]And that was sort of his initial thing, but he adapted that concept to musical ends. He's not he's not describing Persian rugs in music, not a bit. What he's doing is exploring ways in which music can be stripped of almost all of its more expressive elements except the geometrical pattern making process. And then he follows this through in works which involve three players in this case um playing very very different instruments which is perfect because they have very different seniorities and you can hear them play their individual patterns and these patterns change very slowly over time and they evolve both within each part and in contrast to the other parts. And then every so often the ensembles may come together or or share material. Um the the thematic material is largely a tonal except in well in in crippled symmetry the second of them of the pieces here you know there are some sort of tonal elements and and for Philip Gustin actually has some programmatic elements and some and some surprising outbursts which it sure as hell better because it's four and more than four and some odd hours long.

[00:03:55]Um, and and these things are all incorporated into the ongoing flow of the music. And it's fascinating. You can listen to it two ways. You can it's all meant to be played very quietly. The recording, the sonics, and the recording approach to these pieces has been more or less the same in all of the the various recordings. There the versions on hat art that, you know, sort of introduced us to these works. Um, I don't know if those are still available.

[00:04:21]I sort of doubt it. Um, and then there are the recordings on bridge records with the California ear unit. And then there are these. And there are some others too of some of the shorter, you know, I think, um, Y patterns has been recorded a few times. But the the bottom line is you could listen to them as background music. You should play them all very softly. They're all recorded very close to the instruments so that you choose the volume that's comfortable for you, but it should be a low dynamic level. So, you know, so that there's a sort of gentle floating quality. And when you do that, you can either like do your housework or just put it on as background music. It's like a a sculpture or or ambient music, which works perfectly well. Or you can actually try and pay attention to it for as long as you can. And that's hypnotic and fascinating because the music really does sustain your interest. I mean, it really does. It's not It's not, you know, just supposed to be there to be to be ignored. Although, you know, I I love to play it to fall asleep, too. It's like the best thing since a white noise generator. I'm serious. But you can you can also pay attention to it and follow the shifting patterns for as long as your attention holds out. I mean, you can dip into it anywhere. You don't have to start at the beginning and end at the end. Although again, you know, Feldman did write conclusory elements to these pieces. So the endings are endings. Um the beginnings kind of, you know, pop in out of nowhere, but they do have shape.

[00:05:56]They do have structure and and they are just, you know, uh what can I say? The great 20th century composers are, you know, like Feldman, Conlet, Nankarro. They're they're composers who evolved a language of music which is is distinct um to their own aesthetic. Um and which is successful in expressing what they want to express, which is what all great music does, of course, but when you're you're doing it in this sort of format, it requires a little special pleading, I think, sometimes. But anyway, um these performers and label are unknown to me.

[00:06:38]The label is called Another Tamber. Um and the performers are fabulous. You know, anyone who's going to do this music is going to do it well because it requires insane concentration and the type of virtuosity that comes from total control over the instrument and over time and rhythm. And it's really it's really very difficult to do well. But the people who do it are trained to do it and they do it very well in all the performances I've heard mostly. But we've got uh Taylor McClennon flute, alto flute, bass flute, all the different flutes. We'll talk about the ensembles in a second. Um Siwan Ree piano and George Barton Glocken Spieler percussion. Um who also uh wrote excellent notes in the little booklet that comes with this. Now, Y patterns is for flute and alto. Flute, piano, and glocken spiel. Uh, and that's, like I said, the most popular of all of these.

[00:07:40]Yeah, absolutely. You hear it in bus stations. Not exactly. You should actually. It's great waiting room music, too. Then we've got uh crippled symmetry for flute, bass, flute, piano, and celesta, and vibrophone and glocken spiel. I mean even here you see that you know Felman isn't totally insensitive to his his listeners. I mean he does create gentle but distinct tambberal interest by varying who's playing what and how it works. And for Philip Gustin which is endless um from 1984 um is for flute alto flute piccolo piano celesta vibrophone glocken spiel mima and tubular bells. So there are startling moments in a couple of these works. They don't just stay in a sort of, you know, static nirvana like, you know, stasis for the entire time, but most of the time they do. And I just think the music's amazing. I'm not always in the mood for it. I don't play it every five minutes, but I enjoy it when I hear it. And I'm always up for it because I know that there's a payoff.

[00:08:50]The payoff is actually hearing and somehow in your auditory canals, visualizing these shifting patterns and rhythms and and and Feldman does it in such a clever way. You would say some people, for example, would say, "Oh, God, the material is atonal." It's like, yeah, well, it is. But the reason it's atonal is because he doesn't want you to focus on a melody. He wants you to focus on the pattern. And if there were strongly melodic impulses, you wouldn't care about the pattern. You'd listen to the tune and everybody else would be subsidiary. You know, he knows what he's doing. He knows how to make the expressive points with the resources he selects. And I I can't stress that enough because that's that's what great composers do. And Felman, I think, was a great composer. I really do. crazy guy apparently, you know, character in many ways, but uh extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary. And these performances are fantastic. And I'm very excited to see, you know, a major project like this come out because God knows, you know, in this in this market, in this day and age, it's not going to happen frequently and and the audience for this will be small. I understand. But if you're really interested in quality avantguard contemporary music, music that's great because it's great music, not because it's avantguard or contemporary or because it conforms to a system, but because you you find a composer adopting a language that he knows how to use and knows what it means and he knows how to deploy it to maximum effect. It's a wonderful listening adventure and and and education actually in in the power of of music and great art to draw you in and and teach you about itself as it you encounter it, you know, in real time.

[00:10:47]So, great work folks who put this together. Um, absolutely wonderful for the Mlennon Ree and Barton trio.

[00:10:58]They're astounding. The sonics are fabulous. The notes are good. It's a class production of stupendous music, plain and simple. So, keep on listening, friends. Thanks for joining me. Take care.