Early Piano Pieces

Together with John Cage, Earle Brown and Christian Wolff, Morton Feldman is ascribed to the New York School of Music. Feldman's music is characterized by minimalist structures (although he was never close to the minimalism of Steve Reich or Philipp Glass) and contemplative sounds (without being “meditational music”). His works are based on the concept of “lessness”, i.e. they do not want to express anything and follow no logic of musical development. Nevertheless, his works are of utmost complexity and require an extremely sensitive interpretation that is focussed down to the last detail.

The piano pieces compiled on the present two CDs cover a period of composition of almost thirty years. Feldman wrote for the piano throughout his life; he loved this instrument, which he also played. The spectrum of pieces presented here therefore represents a good cross-section of his entire compositional output.

co-production with Bayerischer Rundfunk