Morton Feldman - Pieces for more than 2 hands (1991)

Tracklist:
01 Four Pianos (1957) 16:12
02 Intermission VI (1953) 2:30
03 Four Hands (1958) 11:22
04 Two Pieces For Two Pianos (1954) 2:04
05 Two Pianos (1957) 9:31
06 Five Pianos (1972) 30:56

PERFORMED BY
JEAN-LUC FAFCHAMPS
LAURENCE CORNEZ
KAAT DE WINDT
JEAN-LUC PLOUVIER
STEPHANE GINSBURGH

Second volume dedicated to Morton Feldman.
First publication in 1991.

6 pieces for 2, 3, 4 & 5 pianos performed by Le Bureau des pianistes: Laurence Cornez, Kaat De Windt, Jean-Luc Fafchamps, Jean-Luc Plouvier, Stéphane Ginsburgh.

Ars Musica, March 16, 1991, 11:00 pm: in almost total darkness, le Bureau des Pianistes begins the complete works for several pianists of Morton Feldman (1926-1987). We are off for nearly three hours of music, the most lavish work for combined keyboards since Milhaud: a dozen pieces for every formation from three hands to five pianos. In an atmosphere of semi-darkness and restraint - how many ploys we need to rediscover the ways of true contemplation! - that night was for us, the pianists of le Bureau, a privileged moment of total liberation from classical constraint: no virtuosity here, no pianistic effects; sparse, almost non-existant dynamics, here and there, a few effect of synchronization. The Feldmanian universe works as a pacifier, and at last oblivious of time's flight, all our sensibilities bend to listen to a soaring within us - a precarious state, close to sleep, demanding an absolute attention, an infinite restraint at the limit of objectivity.

The only intransigent representative of the often laxist school, Feldman affirms himself in his exemplary evolution as the incontestable master of the minimalism, a poetic of debatable metaphysically that can perform the fowolling miracle: elaborate in the confines of silence an ineffable discourse.

Jean-Luc Fafchamps

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Morton Feldman was born in New York on January 12, 1926. In 1949 the most significant meeting up to that time took place - Feldman met John Cage, commencing an artistic association of crucial importance to music in America in the 1950s. Cage was instrumental in encouraging Feldman to have confidence in his instincts, which resulted in totally intuitive compositions. He never worked with any systems that anyone has been able to identify, working from moment to moment, from one sound to the next. His friends during the 1950s in New York included the composers Earle Brown and Christian Wolff; painters Mark Rothko, Philip Guston, Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock and Robert Rauschenberg; and pianist David Tudor. He is today considered as one of the most important composers of the century.



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