Feldman, Morton (1926 - 87)

[Bryn]

I'm really rather surprised at that. I thought Tate Modern would provide a rather huge venue, and the concert wouldb't be that popular.

It's in the Tanks, rather than the Turbine Hall. It still seems rather surprising that we failed to get tickets though.

I wonder when the broadcast will be?

[Beef Oven!]

Dave2002, Not as surprised as I was. I’m used to going to gigs that don’t have mass-market appeal and I’d thought this’d be one of them.

Bryn, We? Did you not get a ticket then?

[Bryn]

... Bryn, We? Did you not get a ticket then?

Indeed not. I got the same 'update' email as others here.

[Beef Oven!]

Indeed not. I got the same 'update' email as others here.

Clearly a helluva lot of Feldman fans out there, or it’s taking place in the khazi.

[EdgeleyRob]

My last two applications were unsuccessful,Walton,Elgar and Strauss (11 Nov) and Stravinsky this coming Sunday evening.

[Bryn]

I am authoritatively advised that the performance will be broadcast live Through the Night. It will be immediately preceded by Hear and Now.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Feldman

Something very special, here, that many of us have been eagerly waiting for for some time. Morton Feldman's six-hour long String Quartet No2 from 1983 will be played and broadcast Live from the Tate Modern Tanks as part of the Gallery's Robert Rauschenberg exhibition. The Flux Quartet is one of the few ensembles that faces up to the formidable challenges of this astonishing, lovely work (just imagine the arm positions that the Violin & Viola players have to adopt for that length of time!) - and their recording of the work actually takes six hours, seven minutes and seven seconds.

I would have loved to have been there - but the non-stop broadcast, starting straight after Saturday's Hear & Now, will be quite acceptable for me - bringing back memories of the all-night Raga Proms of the early 1980s.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084cpt0

The Flux Quartet's report of how they came to terms with the demands of the work is covered in fascinating detail here:

http://www.fluxquartet.com/feldman2.html

And a little "taster" here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/records/n3qwc9

[Bryn]

In the past couple of weeks I have listened to the Ives Ensemble's recording, and an 'unofficial' recording of performance by the Smith Quartet. I have dipped into the FLUX recording but decided to wait for the live broadcast (like several others here my application for tickets was unsuccessful) to again hear them play the whole work. Really miffed at missing out on the tickets though.

[mozart79]

this sounds like something that could be interesting while i won't Listen live i will make sure to put on during the week.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

this sounds like something that could be interesting while i won't Listen live i will make sure to put on during the week.

The (nearly) Live experience made for something very special, I thought - but, yes; I, too, shall be returning (frequently) to the i-Player to fill in the bits I slept through - and just to hear the piece again and again.

I posted on the What You Listening to THAT For Thread (which may be of interest here):

I'd never heard the Second Quartet before today's broadcast, but I was at the HCMF performance of For Philip Guston (as was Bryn, although I didn't know that at the time). Before the FPG event, I wasn't entirely sure how I'd get through the piece - five hours seemed both a daunting and an exciting prospect; and that seemed to be the pre-attitude of many others I chatted to in the audience. In the event, a few seconds of Music eased all concerns and (as Schlee said of the 2nd 4tet) the whole thing seemed just to last for 25 minutes - and I was sympathetically cross when the atmosphere was "broken" so that the cold-ridden Carla Rees could take her cough medicine.

It was with this experience in my memory that I approached last night's broadcast (and, as I have a hacking great cough as I shrug off this cold, it's a damn good thing I didn't get to the concert itself!) - which made the 4tet something of a surprise: it was - as you & Bryn have commented - a much more active work, with (in this performance, which knocked over half-an-hour off their CD recording time) much brisker activity, and yes - more muscular. But I got used to that (Feldman can be muscular - I was bowled over when I first played Neither) and again quickly settled into the groove - and loved every conscious moment of the experience (yes - of course I nodded off every so often: this week I've had an average of three-four hours' sleep each night - but to reemerge into consciousness with these sounds caressing and testing the darkness was a singularly beautiful experience.

And one enhanced, incidentally, by knowing that BeefO & Bryn were both somewhere out there sharing the experience, too. Great to see Cali enjoyed it, too!

[Bryn]

The current version of the playlist on the Feldman SQ2 schedule page reads:

"La Cheminée du Roi René" (excerpt from Madrigal-Nocturne)

Ensemble: BBC Concert Orchestra.

03:01
Antonin Dvorak

Trio for piano and strings No.1 (Op.21) in B flat major

Ensemble: Kungsbacka Trio.

03:26
Morton Feldman & FLUX Quartet

String Quartet no.2
03:35
Fryderyk Chopin

24 Preludes Op.28 for piano

Performer: Claire Huangci.

04:09
Johannes Brahms

Fest- und Gedenkspruche for 8 voices (2 choirs), Op.109

Choir: Danish National Radio Choir. Conductor: Stefan Parkman.

04:19
Claude Debussy

Sonata for cello and piano in D minor

Ensemble: Duo Krarup-Shirinyan.

04:31
Arthur Butterworth

Romanza for horn and strings (1954)

Performer: Martin Hackleman. Orchestra: CBC Radio Orchestra. Conductor: Mario Bernardi.

04:41
Andrea Gabrieli

Aria della battaglia à 8

Ensemble: Theatrum Instrumentorium. Conductor: Stefano Innocenti.

04:51
Vaino Haapalainen

Lemminkainen Overture (1925)

Orchestra: Radion sinfoniaorkesteri. Conductor: Atso Almila.

05:01
Arcangelo Corelli

Sonata da chiesa in F major (Op.1 No.1)

Ensemble: London Baroque.

05:07
Ludwig van Beethoven

32 Variations for Piano in C minor (Wo0.80)

Performer: Antti Siirala.

05:19
Srul Irving Glick

Suite Hebraique No.1 for clarinet and piano

Performer: James Campbell. Performer: Valerie Tryon.

05:30
Jacob Obrecht

Omnes spiritus laudet - offertory motet for 5 voices

Ensemble: Ensemble Daedalus.

05:36
Andrzej Panufnik

Old Polish suite for string orchestra

Orchestra: Sinfonia Varsovia. Conductor: Andres Mustonen.

05:48
Johann Sebastian Bach

Sonata for flute and continuo (BWV.1034) in E minor

Performer: Sharon Bezaly. Performer: Terence Charlston. Performer: Charles Medlam.

06:01
Wilhelm Bernhard Molique

Sonata for concertina and piano (Op.57)

Performer: Joseph Petric. Performer: Guy Few.

06:10
Morton Feldman

Three Pieces for piano

Performer: Steffen Schleiermacher.

Early Piano Works. HAT HUT.

06:19
Morton Feldman

Madame Press died last week at ninety for ensemble [1970]

Conductor: John Adams. Orchestra: Orchestra of St. Luke’s.

John Adams: American Elegies. Elektra Nonesuch. 8.

06:23
Georg Druschetzky

Sextet for 2 clarinets, 2 french horns and 2 bassoons in E flat major

Ensemble: Bratislava Chamber Harmony.

06:41
Joseph Haydn

Quartet for strings (Op.33`2) in E flat major "Joke"

Performer: Adam Barnett-Hart. Performer: Wu Jie. Performer: Pierre Lapointe. Performer: Dane Johansen. Ensemble: Escher Quartet.

So what we thought lasted around five and a half hours was really all over in just 9 minutes.

[Pulcinella]

The current version of the playlist on the Feldman SQ2 schedule page reads:
...
So what we thought lasted around five and a half hours was really all over just 9 minutes.

Maybe someone thought that there should be a red button/FM/LW alternative listening choice, like for Test Match Special!

[Quarky]

The current version of the playlist on the Feldman SQ2 schedule page reads:

So what we thought lasted around five and a half hours was really all over in just 9 minutes.

Getting up late this morning, I assumed Britten's String quartet on Breakfast was an extension of Feldman's magnum opus .

[Serial_Apologist]

Getting up late this morning, I assumed Britten's String quartet on Breakfast was an extension of Feldman's magnum opus .

Like ferney recovering from a severe cold, I too dropped off for much of the performance, waking from time to time to its, presumably, reassuring lapid sounds. If blocked at the Pearly Gates with a revolver pointed at my head, I'd claim witness to the performanace as having lasted all night long - but this is only because I believe everything I'm told by people in authority.

[Beef Oven!]

The [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084cpt0"]So what we thought lasted around five and a half hours was really all over in just 9 minutes.

I can put my hand on heart and honestly say, I thought it was longer than that.