Customer Reviews

Feldman: Coptic Light

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I doubt if Feldman heard much of his orchestral music during his lifetime, although he was a fine consummate craftsman,honing each chord, each sonority as if sculpted,drawn to the nuance,the emotive feel of a linear brushstroke. In fact it is ultimately all that is in the line, the line is like a signature, and can identify you for life. And Feldman thought of his music as a seemless flow, sound where its emanation cannot be detected;Simply there in space. "Piano and Orchestra" is not a concerto, that is furthest from the conceptual beauty of this piece, at least we should think so given Feldman's lifelong penchant for searching for new relations, new dimensions,new cross breeding of sonorities within the orchestral canvas. The piano here is like you've never heard it before,simple bell-like mildly dissonant,and preserving itself when it embarks onto its extreme register:when it has an entrance it is as a finely purified moment,surrounded by the precision of bare, thin,exposed and balanced orchestral sonorities. Feldman begins to give himself away around the center of the piece, with snarling expressionistic brass,and muted trumpets,around a menacing half step from Stravinsky's "Rite". But the piano always reaffirms the ongoing argument here, as well as the lower isolated tones in the harp. The odd tremoli or rolls from the barely perceptible bass drum was a stroke of genius. You may recall Webern's "Six Pieces"."Cello and Orchestra" is the same conceptual drawing from all registers of the versatile accomplice of the violoncello. And "Coptic Light" gleans itself from Feldman's lifelong study of textiles and rugs from the Middle East. He saw the colours as portraying the place where the rugs emanated from, as capturing with utmost fidelity their origin. Tilson Thomas has a committed bunch here in tackling Feldman's tireless beautiful music. His music is not much fun to play,counting numerous rests, and entering as if you are not even there,dovetailing always, a balancing act of orchestral discipline. I don't ever see this music entering standard repertoire,despite its profound musical scope. Thanks again.

The music of Morton Feldman (1926-1987) can be frustrating to those who expect movement in time. I have found that this frame of mind opens the way to anxiety and tension. On the other hand, by listening to the sound as it is presented at the moment in time without expectation or anticipation, the music tends to release a transcendent quality. PIANO & ORCHESTRA and CELLO & ORCHESTRA are examples of this characteristic of Mr Feldman's music. Sounds are introduced which have a weak relationship to past and future. With the sound itself as its own goal, it surpasses knowledge and experience. I find this extremely unique and fascinating. COPTIC LIGHT accepts this approach, applying it to a more complex arrangement.

The word Copt is derived from the Greek word Aigyptos, which was, in turn, derived from "Hikaptah", one of the names for Memphis, the first capital of Ancient Egypt. The modern use of the term "Coptic" describes Egyptian Christians, as well as the last stage of the ancient Egyptian language script. Also, it describes the distinctive art and architecture that developed as an early expression of the new faith.

The Coptic Church is based on the teachings of Saint Mark who brought Christianity to Egypt during the reign of the Roman emperor Nero in the first century, a dozen of years after the Lord's ascension. He was one of the four evangelists and the one who wrote the oldest canonical gospel. Christianity spread throughout Egypt within half a century of Saint Mark's arrival in Alexandria as is clear from the New Testament writings found in Bahnasa, in Middle Egypt, which date around the year 200 A.D., and a fragment of the Gospel of Saint John, written using the Coptic language, which was found in Upper Egypt and can be dated to the first half of the second century.(www.coptic.net/EncyclopediaCoptica/)

Regardless of your interest in spiritual matters, I find that thinking about these types of eternal questions fits well with the endless nature of this piece. If you are interested in American Composers of the late 20th Century, or in music which is contemplative, this CD will be interesting to you.

This is a great introduction CD to Feldman's art. The performances are superb, slightly edging out the cpo recordings and in better sound. Give it a chance and you will discover one of the finest composers of the late 20th century.

Speaking from personal experience, Feldman's music is EXTREMELY difficult to perform effectively. Here, Tilson Thomas and the NWS present some of the best performances of Feldman's orchesral music ever recorded. My only reservations about this recording lie in its promotion and packaging; the pieces on this disc are touted as "premiere recordings," when in fact all three works were recorded on the German CPO label in the late 80s/early 90s. Sadly, this is one of the last releases on Decca's "Argo" sub-label, which has now been shut down after many fine years of service to contemporary music.

Feldman is fast becoming an obsession with me. His extremely hieratic sound world challenges the listener to use differing ears to listen, ears that listen to each sound "in the moment" and not impose typical ideas of directionality and development so traditional in music of the west. The three pieces on this album are great introductions to this subtle composer.

Piano and Orchestra is fast becoming my favorite Feldman piece. Written as part of a series of works for instruments and orchestra in the 70's, the work lives from moments to moment, consisting of soft discreet sounds separated by silences. Feldman's ear for instrumental sonority is unmatched. Ear sound is lush...dissonant and yet gorgeous, rather in the manner of Debussy or Messiaen. And the quiet dynamics increase the beauty of each sound. There is a sense of form, a series of chords played over and over by the pianist and echoed by the orchestral pianist create what is a recognizable "theme", is you can call such minimal material a theme. But the best way to listen to this music is to think of it as an object of sound, rather like a crystal with light coming through it. Static on the surface, but infinitely fascinating if you quiet down your own mind and just observe it.

Cello and Orchestra is from the same series, though written earlier. I am less enamoured of this one, though I like it. I'm not sure what leaves me colder in it. Perhaps the sustained nature of the cello makes this piece a little more conventional than Piano and Orchestra, a little more like a concerto. It is nevertheless a beautiful work.

The final work on the CD is Coptic Light. This is a stunning work from Feldman's late period, but with the virtue of being much shorter than most works from this time. (A true performance of Feldman's Second String Quartet would take 4 hours, but even the Kronos would not attempt that. They said they couldn't make it hang together.) Coptic Light, which gets it's name from a style of oriental carpet, is really rather like looking at one of those fascinating designs. Initially you only notice the symmetry in the pattern...as if the pieces was all one unchanging folding out of it's first bars. But a careful listening reveals that each pattern is constantly changing. Motives repeat with rhythmic variations, subtle changes in melodic material, and changes in the vertical arrangement, creating an infinately shifting tapestry. The work is haunting.

The "_____ and Orchestra" series has been recorded on CPO by Hans Zender and the Southwest German Radio Orchestra, so the claim on the recording that these are world premieres is wrong. (The CPO discs may actually be reissues of old Wergo CDs as well, as they were originally recorded in the 70's and have that "Wergo" look.But I may be wrong.) This recording of Piano and Orchestra is longer than the Zender recording and the indications in the score by about 5 minutes, but tempo aside, I'm unable to make a determination between the two versions. I like the way the Zender CD hangs together better, but I like the sound quality and the pianist better on this CD. Tilson Thomas does a wonderful job with this music. On the "Cello and Orchestra" recording Tilson Thomas is faster than Zender, and on this work I clearly prefer the European conductor. There is another available recording of Coptic Light as well, but I don't have it. Despite what one reviewer said here, on the page for that recording, there is alot of carping about the performance and the general consensus is that Tilson Thomas' version is better, so I am loath to invest the money to find out for myself, not when there is so much more Feldman out there to explore.

Do yourself a favor, listen to this CD...perhaps borrow it from a friend first (Feldman is an aquired taste I think. I wouldn't have gotten him ten years ago.) Listen with attention, but not concentration, rather like a musically guided meditation. Only then do you start to get where Feldman is trying to take you.

Tilson Thomas' recording have (until this CD) always been a major disappointment. This recording, however, is a stunning achievement. Extraordinary works, carefully, and beautifully performed. I look forward to the (hint, hint) next installment.

Coptic Light is one of the most ridiculously beautiful, incredibly sensuous, intellectually engaging pieces of music ever written. The performance is luminous. The sound is perfect. My eyes get red when I remember its reception at the first performances by the New York Philharmonic. Ars Longa, Vita Brevis, baby! The two other pieces are both amazing too, but they belong to an interim stylistic period of Feldman's.There is some audible tension in them between the non-rhetorical solo lines and the attempt to create some very personal kind of Orchestral Drama. This tension is far from unattractive and unengaging, but it's Coptic Light that I'll return to again and again.

"Coptic Light" has become one of my favorite pieces of 20th century music, alongside of some by Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, and Stravinsky. It is beautiful, deep, subtle, intricate, and mysterious. Also, it has the amazing property of becoming more of these attributes the more one listens to it. Whereas on first listening it can sound like the continuous repetition of a basic pattern, the more one listens to it, the more all of the "repetitions" sound different, because subtle background differences, almost inaudible at first, become increasingly prominent. For me it also has a wonderful bonus property: having suffered from sleep problems for much of my life, and having tried all kinds of remedies, including medication, meditation, breathing exercises, and various CD's that are supposed to promote sleep by getting the brain in sync with delta brain waves, I've discovered that Coptic Light is the only thing that works reliably to put me to sleep, and I mention this on the off chance that other insomniacs might also be helped by it. There is something about focusing on the intricate and subtle shifts in the music that, if I listen to it while lying down in a sleep position, works effectively to put me to sleep. Many of the CD's that are designed to promote sleep are full of a sappy, soupy, corny, saccharine New Age sound that can be repellent to a musically sensitive person. "Coptic Light", on the other hand, is subtle, magical, original, with slightly bitter edges, and cognitively engaging, inducing sleep in a lovely, delicate, and wondrous manner.

This interpretation of "Coptic Light" is horrible. The magnanimous coptic tapestry was abraded by corrosive chemicals, and thrown in a humid catacomb where there is no light. I wonder if the other reviewers were so positive to this recording simply because it is very unusual that American orchestras record Feldman's music. I recommend instead the beautiful reading by the Berlin Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Morgan (Cpo # 999189).

After so many people telling me just how brilliant this work was, I finally decided to take the plunge and buy it. I can't say I'm exactly happy, but not altogther disappointed either. I'm not so much happy in the fact that I laid down cash to hear this mediocre repetitive meandering, but not disappointed because at least I know what it sounds like now and know to avoid the "Feldman" bin at my local record store.

"Coptic Light" is fairly interesting...but it grows tiresome upon repeated listenings. I could see where it would be intersting live. "Coptic Light" absolutely STOMPS the other two pieces, so that should tell you what I thought about them. While perhaps quasi-interesting live, on disc its like staring at asphalt...which is more boring than watching paint dry...because when paint drys...at least there is minimal action occurring. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of "weird"...I like Takemitsu, Messaien, Schnittke, etc, but this is just like listening to white noise. Its not very dynamic...it kind of oozes. If that's what he was tyring to achieve, then he hit it spot on.

If this flips your switch, that's fine with me, but I could think of a thousand better ways to spend 70 minutes than listening to this CD.