Customer Reviews

Morton Feldman: For Philip Guston

5 star:		(7)
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There are other performances of For Philip Guston available (on Hat Hut and Dog w/a Bone), but this recording by the California EAR Unit seems to be the one most recommended. Honestly, I can go either way, sometimes preferring Blum, Vigeland, etc to the EAR Unit, and vice versa. Feldman's later works--his best in my opinion--are extremely long with minimal events (patterns and variations) often taking place over several hours. Hence they deal with memory, or the limitation thereof. I could describe this music as introspective, meditative, or glacial, but I'm reminded of someone else's description instead (perhaps it was Arto Lindsay's). That listening to Feldman was akin to holding up an object, like a crystal, to the light and examining it from several angles for an extended time. Other great Feldman "For..." performances that I recommend are "For John Cage" (Hat Hut) by Josje Ter Haar and John Snijders of the Ives Ensemble, and "For Bunita Marcus" (LondonHall) by the great John Tilbury.

Of all the pieces that Feldman wrote for Flute, Piano, and/or mallet percussion, this is the recording and performance to get. I prefer this ensemble to the ones on the Hat Art label, although some of them are good too.

The piece is magic. It is evocative of underwater images of slowly undulating objects, flowing movements at different speeds, yet very peaceful. Everything has natural movements, they just take their course.

This has been a piece I have never stopped returning to.

This recording offers the most honest and skilled approach to this piece that I have ever heard. This music really reflects Guston's visual aesthetic--in a way that only Feldman could understand.

Like being shrunk into an Oriental rug and wandering around without time. You've never had an experience like this. Certainly one of the greatest composers of this century and into the next.

Blum, Vigeland, and Williams, the première musicians, recorded it on about 265 minutes. The S.E.M. Ensemble was a little bit slower (288 minutes). But this version takes only 248 minutes to play, so after listening to it you still may have time to listen to something else in the same evening! Great!

I have given this recording to a lot of my friends, many who have little interest in Classical music, and they are all blown away.

This recording presents music of great and natural beauty.

This piece is especially suited to the newer digital music players.....put it on and soak in it for 4 hours.