Morton Feldman - String Quartet & Orchestra (2/2)
String Quartet & Orchestra (1973)
Pellegrini Quartet
Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt
Lucas Vis
"String Quartet and Orchestra" (1973) reflects Feldman's ongoing study of texture, color, and cluster within a larger context than his chamber or solo pieces. It provides evidence en masse that Feldman's method -- as developed from his early graphic notation style to his composition by intuitive assemblage in the middle years to his absolute control over every timbre (while granting the performer and intuitive energy of interpretation) in his late works -- worked in any compositional or performance context. "String Quartet and Orchestra" uses Feldman's instinctual use of repetition idiomatically with different shadings and clusters. The overtonal architecture constructed by the quartet is responded to fragmentally by the orchestra. Very gradually the palette expands and the architecture grows seemingly exponentially, even though only three more clustered tones are added. The effect is one of tension created by ambiguity. [allmusic.com]
Art by Edgar Arceneaux