Feldman: Crippled Symmetry

One of Feldman's late masterpieces...a must-have!

In the last decade of his life, Morton Feldman began composing longer and longer works. His increased fame by that time gave him the opportunity to explore extended compositions without there being much resistence from players or listeners alike (although his good friend John Cage once asked "Why does it have to be so long?") This composition, as with all of his late masterpieces, explores it's own sound world with continual interest and beauty, and leads one to think that the composition could have been much longer...so profound are the ramifications of the sounds Feldman projects into time. The instrumental trio combination of flute (with the performer doubling on the rare, haunting and beautiful bass flute), glockenspiel/vibraphone and piano/celesta, has a sublime purity that Feldman found endlessly interesting. One imagines this composition to be a kind of multicolored jewel examined from all possible angles, with no end to the subtle and arresting forms found there. The performance and recording of this masterwork are top-notch, bringing out the wonder and beauty of Feldman's conception. Bridge Records is also to be commended for offering this work on a 2-disc set for the price of one disc. It's a rare record company today that is willing to lose some of their profit margin (and let's face it, the "profit" on a contemporary classical CD is pretty slim at best) in order to bring more listeners to the music. (No doubt if they'd priced this release as a 2-disc set it would have found far fewer listeners willing to part with the money because the work runs 10 minutes over the playing length of a compact disc). June 1, 2006

Too Interesting to be Ambient

The music of Morton Feldman does not seem to call out measured responses from listeners. Either you love it or you find it devoid of interest. I think that Feldman is the musical equivalent of his friend Marc Rothko. He strips his language down to the bare essentials in ordered to challenge the listener to hear music in a new way.

Crippled Symmetry is based on a similar ensemble that Feldman used for Why Patterns?; flute, percussion and piano/celeste. The work begins rather densely, at least in this performance. But as the music unfolds the material becomes more bare. In some ways the entire work sounds like the gradual relaxing of the tensions created in the opening. By the last minutes of the piece, the ensemble is reduced to nearly inaudible sounds of incredibly sustained legnth. Due to the reduced material, any variation in rhythm, tone or texture becomes charged with meaning. His work resembles a crystal held up to the light. It seems unvaried in structure and yet when examined explodes with subtle shifts in pattern.

The performance on this disc is very good. Feldman's music is extremely difficult to play. Dynamics must be extremely soft and well controlled, chords must be voiced carefully. The least little mistake in voicing can jar the listener out of the state that Feldman is aiming for. And the slowness of the tempi is monumentally difficult to sustain. Given that so much of Feldman's music is created from subtle points of music rather than traditional melodic line, performance demands extremes of concentration from the musicians. The California EAR unit does a remarkable job of sustining this piece over it's nearly 90 minutes. There is one other recording of this work in the catalogue, but I have not heard it yet. More than with most composers, Feldman rewards multiple versions of his pieces, so comparison would be interesting.

Fledman's musical world can be daunting. If you are looking for minimalism, ala Part or Goreck, you won't find that here. Listen to Rothko Chapel instead. That's a lovely work and one that should appeal to the mainstream listener. But if you want to stretch your ears and your sense of the passage of time, Crippled Symmetry is one of Feldman's best late works. August 13, 2002

Feldman at his best

Despite what the above "rough guide" review might say, "Crippled Symmetry" is NOT an example of Feldman's style in the 1950's. The piece was composed in the 1980's just a year or two before his death and is one of his pieces that lasts quite a long time (90 minutes, almost) and exists within a very small range of dynamics (from extremely quiet to maybe mezzopiano at the most).

Over the course of listening to this I found myself getting more and more involved in listening without even realizing it at first. This is one of my favorite aspects of Feldman's music... how after maybe 10 minutes of listening you get used to his world of time and space and the slightest variation becomes a noticeable change from the seemingly static musical material.

Along with "Why Patterns?" and a few other late works, "Crippled Symmetry" is the result of years of work in composition. Just like Nono, Feldman's most powerful music was written in the last years of his life.

Highly highly recommended. May 8, 2001

More reviews at Amazon.com ...