4765777 M Feldman: The Viola In My Life - Marek Konstantynowicz, viola; Cikada Ensemble; Norwegian Radio Orchestra; Christian Eggen, conductor

4765777 M Feldman: The Viola In My Life - Marek Konstantynowicz, viola; Cikada Ensemble; Norwegian Radio Orchestra; Christian Eggen, conductor

label - ECM

Cat. No. - 4765777

Morton Feldman (1926-1987) was one of the most important and influential American composers of the 20th century. His music is characterized by soft dynamics, stillness, and often, particularly in his later pieces, extreme length. He was a friend of John Cage and many prominent artists in 1950s New York including composers Earle Brown and Christian Wolff, painters Mark Rothko, Philip Guston, Jackson Pollock and Robert Rauschenberg and pianist David Tudor. The painters in particular influenced Feldman to search for his own sound world, resulting in his experimentations with graphic notation and player improvisation. From 1973 he was Edgar Varèse Professor at Buffalo University.

Feldman wrote all four of The Viola in My Life pieces in the early 1970s for American viola player Karen Phillips: "<Actinic:Variable Name = 'It'/> was begun in Honolulu in July 1970 and consists of individual compositions utilizing various instrumental combinations (small and large) with viola. Unlike most of my music, the complete cycle is conventionally notated as regards pitches and tempi. I needed the exact time proportion underlying the gradual and slight crescendo characteristic of all the muted sounds the viola plays. It was this aspect that determined the rhythmic sequence of events." Scored for viola with flute, violin, cello, percussion and piano, the first part is dedicated to the Pierrot Players who premiered it under Peter Maxwell Davies in London in 1970. The last was commissioned by the Venice Biennale for its 1971 Festival, and is an orchestral 'translation' of material used in the three chamber pieces preceding it. "My intention was to think of melody and motivic fragments somewhat the way Robert Rauchenberg uses photographs in his painting and superimpose this on a static sound world more characteristic of my music."

Cikada, founded in Oslo in 1989, is considered one of Europe's leading contemporary music groups. At its largest, the ensemble consists of nine musicians under the Norwegian conductor Christian Eggen, well-known specialist in new music. Viola player Marek Konstantynowicz, born in Poland in 1955, moved to Norway well over 20 years ago. A former free jazz improviser and orchestral player, he is a member of the Cikada String Quartet along with the three Hannisdal brothers with whom he has recorded several CDs - mostly with jazz and improvised music artists - for ECM.
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