Feldman: For Bunita Marcus
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MORTON FELDMAN
Feldman: For Bunita Marcus
Marc-André Hamelin (piano)
[ Hyperion / CD ]
Release Date: Friday 28 July 2017
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'I have no problem with notes … none at all', was Feldman's cryptic comment on For Bunita Marcus. Throughout the seventy-two-minute duration of this extraordinary work, notes coalesce into wisps of melody which drift softly in and out of an immense silence. You are indeed, as Marc-André Hamelin writes, 'about to enter a world unlike any other'.
"Hamelin, known for his extraordinary virtuosity, here presents not so much the exact opposite of this but a world that complements it: slow, minimalist, yet strangely evocative and expressive...Simple though the music sounds, Hamelin's touch of the keyboard plays its role, each note like a separate pebble gently dropped into a pool and sending out ripples." BBC Music Magazine, August 2017 *****
"a perfect and, at around 80 minutes, a relatively concise introduction to the timeless, pared-down world of late Feldman...Hamelin presents that world of microscopic nuances with immaculate care...everything in Hamelin's performance seems part of a natural, inevitable unfolding, and the Hyperion recording perfectly catches all its details." The Guardian, 27th July 2017 ****
"What Hamelin has in his favour is an unwavering focus on the dense weave of Feldman's rhythmic grid, and a studio recording as softly tangible as fine silk. Do not, as they say, adjust your set. Rather, sit back and let the music adjust your head." Pianist Magazine, August 2017 ****
"It's a far cry from the virtuoso repertoire one associates with Hamelin to the glacial evacuatedness of late Feldman pieces such as this 73-minute unfolding...He realises this transfigured ritual with technical prowess surplus to requirements." Sunday Times, 6th August 2017
"This music sounds like something being assembled, with great care but also skepticism, as if there were no assembly instructions but all the time in the world to try infinite possibilities. It asks much from the listener, over 72 minutes, in which very little happens. Everything is a barely audible fff with damper pedal on. There is rarely more than one note at a time. After battling our way through boredom, we experience strange epiphanies. The possibility of such a radical restructuring of one's own musical experience might make this recording a reference point for extreme music. Hyperion has matched an ideal sound to a first-rate performance (and liner notes) by Marc Andre-Hamelin." AudAud Best of the year 2017
