Capriccio Releases New Album of “Coptic Light”

courtesy of Naxos of America

At the beginning of this month, Capriccio released a new recording of two compositions by Morton Feldman performed by the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the performing orchestral ensemble for the Austrian national broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF). Both compositions are a little less than half an hour in duration, and both can be taken as representative of how Feldman was influenced by abstract painting and the connections of that genre to earlier forms of visual art. The first selection is Feldman’s final completed work, “Coptic Light,” written on a commission from the New York Philharmonic in 1986 and first performed on May 30 of that year. The second, “String Quartet and Orchestra,” was written in 1973, also on commission, this time from the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and its Principal Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT). Each of these pieces has its own conductor, Michael Boder for “Coptic Light” and Emilio Pomàrico for “String Quartet and Orchestra.” On the latter track the performing string quartet is the Arditti Quartet, which has championed Feldman’s music, as well as the works of his former colleague John Cage.

The only time I met Feldman, he was very reluctant to talk about his work. (In fact, all I could get out of him was encouragements that I should be talking to Christian Wolff instead.) On the other hand Feldman’s writings could bring considerable clarity to listening experiences that might otherwise come across as dispassionately remote. In that context I feel that the best way to approach “Coptic Light” is through what Feldman himself wrote about it:

Having an avid interest in all varieties of arcane weaving of the Middle East, I recently viewed the stunning examples of early Coptic textiles on permanent display at the Louvre. What struck me about these fragments of colored cloth was how they conveyed an essential atmosphere of their civilization. Transferring this thought to another realm, I asked myself what aspects of the music since Monteverdi might determine its atmosphere, if heard 2000 years from now. For me the analogy would be one of the instrumental imagery of Western music. These were some of the metaphors that occupied my thoughts while composing Coptic Light. An important technical aspect of the composition was prompted by Sibelius’ observation that the orchestra differed from the piano mainly in that it has no pedal. With this in mind, I set to work to create an orchestral pedal, continually varying in nuance. This “chiaroscuro” is both the compositional and the instrumental focus of Coptic Light.

On a more personal note I would say that, perhaps because of the influence of those textiles, “Coptic Light” serves up far more instrumental coloration than I have encountered in most of Feldman’s compositions. That coloration arises through his “signature” technique of frequently repeated motifs and the overlay of different durations for the cycle of each of those motifs. I tried dealing with this technique in Feldman’s “Piano;” and it nearly drove me crazy. When listening to a piece like “Coptic Light,” I do my best to let go of my analytic side and simply let my ears find their own way in surveying the rich landscape of sonorities that Feldman created.

In some respects I would have preferred that the album had presented its two compositions in chronological order. “String Quartet and Orchestra” is an earlier venture into Feldman’s “landscape” approach. However, because of the instrumentation, one is more aware of the interplay between individual instruments and ensemble sonorities. I might even argue that “String Quartet and Orchestra” provides an excellent instance of “ear training,” which will inform how the “mind behind the ear” approaches listening to “Coptic Light.”

Feldman is one of those composers whose listening experiences are best approached by a somewhat Zen-like precept:

The best way to learn how to listen to Morton Feldman is to listen to Morton Feldman.

During his tenure as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, MTT provided several valuable opportunities to listen to Feldman’s music performed, rather than recorded. I valued every one of those that I attended. I wish there could have been more, but I was well aware of how many members of the audiences were shuffling around in restlessness. The best MTT could do was to lead the horse to water, and that was greatly appreciated by those of us that knew how to drink!